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Sources of creole semantic structures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

George L. Huttar
George L. Huttar*
Affiliation:
Summer Institute of Linguistics
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Abstract

Evidence from a comparison of the usage of 20 morphemes in each of 43 languages suggests that when morphemes are borrowed from a socially dominant language into a pidgin, and extended in usage as in a creole, the major factor determining the direction of such extension is the linguistic background of the speakers of languages other than the dominant one. Features inherent in pidginization and creolization themselves play only a subsidiary role. The role of semantic universals appears to be even less significant. Monogenetic hypotheses of the origin of pidgins and creoles are not supported by the evidence.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 1975 , pp. 684 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 Linguistic Society of America

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