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5 - Broken Windows: Creoles, Pidgins, and Language Evolution

from Part I - The Evolution of Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2025

By
Paul T. Roberge
Edited by
Dany Adone  and
Astrid Gabel
Dany Adone
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
Astrid Gabel
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
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Summary

Roberge’s chapter presents Bickerton’s creolisation as a catastrophic single-generation process that obtains from first language acquisition in abnormal circumstances. In the ‘interesting’ cases, at least, a pidgin provides the primary linguistic data, and an innate biological program of linguistic competence shapes the result. On this view (i) the formation of these languages points directly to humankind’s biological capacity to create language should the normal generation-to-generation means of transmission be disrupted; and (ii) creoles provide the most direct window possible on the properties of the human language faculty. In his chapter Roberge chronicles the development and reception of Bickerton’s creole and pidgin windows on the origin and evolution of language in our species through their entire arc. While posterity has firmly rejected Bickerton’s creole window on early human language, Roberge argues that the pidgin window, at least, holds some heuristic potential, though a great deal of work remains to be done.

Keywords

language evolutionwindows approachcreole windowpidgin windowcreolisation

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Chapter
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The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond
 , pp. 74 - 95
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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