Abstract
Abstract Sociolinguistic debates around the definitions and significance of “pidgin” and “creole” languages were increasing in the 1960s and the SSRC’s Committee on Sociolinguistics played a role in cultivating these discussions. This 1968 report by Dell Hymes summarizes issues raised at a conference convened by the Council at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, to better understand the historical development, the grammatical and lexical evolutions, and the social uses of pidgin and creole languages. Though he highlights how social science can better inform research on pidginization and creolization, Hymes identifies knowledge gaps, among them the nature of the relationship between these languages and national identity, and more broadly the lack of historical and social scientific knowledge of this topic.
Highlights
Sociolinguistic debates around the definitions and significance of “pidgin” and “creole” languages were increasing in the 1960s and the SSRC’s Committee on Sociolinguistics played a role in cultivating these discussions
This 1968 report by Dell Hymes summarizes issues raised at a conference convened by the Council at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, to better understand the historical development, the grammatical and lexical evolutions, and the social uses of pidgin and creole languages
Languages called “pidgins” and “creoles” have been something of a stepchild in scientific research, but their origins and social functions pose in clear form problems of the sort with which the Council’s Committee on Sociolinguistics is concerned
Summary
In ordinary usage the term pidgin suggests a mishmash, and certainly inferiority; only rarely, as among some peoples of New Guinea, is knowledge of a pidgin a badge of cosmopolitanism and male superiority At best these languages are considered marginal; at worst, debased forms of speech without structure or value. Where forms are differentiated by style, the Spanish term marks formality (politeness toward addressee), and the Philippine is the unmarked conversational form This indicated to the conference a quite unexpected and original possibility of linking the analysis of creolization to the study of language universals
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