Linguistics Encyclopedia.pdf

The linguistics encyclopedia 112
in certain respects more complex than their lexical-source languages in
that they made some grammatical and semantic distinctions not made in
the European languages…. [They] often use quite different words for ‘be’
depending on whether the following element is a noun phrase, an
adjective, or an indication of location.
In addition, a ‘highlighter be’ exists, the function of which is to bring the following
words into focus rather like extra stress on a word in English or like introducing it with
it’s as in It’s Jane who lives here (not Elizabeth) (Holm, 1988, p. 179).
Serial verbs, that is, a series of two or more verbs which are not joined by-a
conjunction such as and or by a complemetizer such as to, and which share a subject, are
also a common feature of creoles. These often function as adverbs and prepositions in
European languages, to indicate (1) directionality, as in Jamaican Creole English, ron go
lef im, ‘run go leave him’, meaning ‘run away from him’; or (2) instrumentality, as in
Ndjuka, a teke nefi koti a meti, ‘he took knife cut the meat’, meaning ‘he cut the meat
with a knife’. In addition, serial ‘give’ can be used to mean ‘to’ or ‘for’, and serial ‘say’
can be used to mean ‘that’ when introducing a quotation or a that-sentence. Serial
‘pass’/‘surpass’/‘exceed’ can be used to indicate comparison. Similar construction types
are found in many African languages (Holm, 1988, pp. 183–90).
THE ORIGIN OF PIDGINS
One of the most important theories to surface at the first conference on pidgin and creole
linguistics in Jamaica in 1959 (see above, p. 82) was the idea that all or most pidgins or
creoles could be traced back to one common source, a Portuguese-based pidgin
developed in the fifteenth century in Africa, which was later relexified, translated word
for word, into the pidgins with other European bases which gave rise to modern creoles.
This theory is known as the theory of monogenesis (one origin) or relexification, and it
originates in its modern form in Whinnom’s (1956) observation of the strong similarities
in terms of vocabulary and structure between Philippine Creole Spanish and Ternate
(Indonesia) Creole Portuguese. He hypothesized that a seventeenth-century pidgin
version of the latter, itself possibly an imitation of the Mediterranean lingua franca Sabir,
had been transported to the Philippines.
Others noted that many of the features of Philippine Creole Spanish were also present
in Caribbean creoles, in Chinese Pidgin English and in Tok Pisin, but that these had been
relexified (Taylor, 1959, 1960; Thompson, 1961; Stewart, 1962a; Whinnom, 1965;
Voorhoeve, 1973). Stewart (1962a) pointed out that while speakers from opposite ends of
the Caribbean were able to converse in their French-based creoles, neither would easily
be able to converse with a French speaker. So whereas the similarity of vocabulary could
account for some mutual intelligibility, it was in fact syntactic similarity which was the
more important factor, and this syntactic similarity pointed to a common origin for the
French-based creoles.
In contrast to the monogenesis theory, Hall (1962) argued that pidgins would arise
spontaneously wherever and whenever a need for a language of minimal communication
arose, and that these could then be creolized. This view is known as the theory of