Pidgins and Creoles and Their Emergence

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 10 University of Leipzig language: English abstract: TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION 12. DEFINITIONS 22.1 PIDGINS 22.2 CREOLES 33. THEORIES OF ORIGINS OF PIDGINS 43.1. BABY-TALK-THEORY 43.2. NAUTICAL JARGON THEORY 63.3. PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT THEORY 63.4. MONOGENETIC/RELEXIFICATION THEORY 74. THE DEVELOPMENT FROM PIDGIN TO CREOLE 84.1. JARGON STAGE 84.2. STABILIZATION PHASE 94.3. EXPANSION PHASE 94.4. CREOLIZATION 105. THE LIFE CYCLE OF CREOLES 115.1. DE-CREOLIZATION AND THE POST-CREOLE CONTINUUM 115.2. RE-CREOLIZATION 136. CONCLUSION 15REFERENCES 16PLAGIARISM DISCLAIMER 17 1. INTRODUCTIONChrismus time ah de time ob gladness and de time ob goodwill when de goodwill pirit tek hold ob we we feget ebery libing ting bout de grudge we gat against wen ex doah neighbour; an we begins fe wish him all kinda nice something cause we feel nice weself. [...](Todd 2006: 100)This sequence of Jamaican Creole is only one of the diversity in the creole-speaking world. In my term paper I will examine the emergence of a Creole. I start with an outline of the definitions of Pidgins and creoles and how they relate to each other. I continue with the most known origins of Pidgins which is followed by the four phases of development from a Pidgin to a Creole. Finally I will introduce the topic of De- and Re-creolization. 2. DEFINITIONS2.1. PidginsDefining what is a pidgin and what is not is a challenging undertaking. Generally a Pidgin is any combination and distortion of two languages as a means of communication. (Sebba 1997: 1) Pidgin English is defined as any lingua franca consisting of English and another language. (Sebba 1997: 1) It is a reduced language that arises through extensive contact between different groups of people who do not share a common language (Holm 1988: 4). The Pidgin is strengthened because there is