SAR SH 524 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Language Bioprogram Theory, Hawaiian Pidgin, Nicaraguan Sign Language
26 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Language as a human universal: language is a characteristic of the human species. All human children (barring impairment) have the capacity to acquire language. In fact, language is something that humans can"t help doing. Language creation: whenever humans come together, they want to communicate. If they don"t share a language, they may create one. Pidgins are communication systems created when people have no language in common. They typically include lexical items for either/both languages, but with own primitive grammar. Many examples (historic and current) of the creating of pidgins. Example: hawaiian pidgin: created by immigrant workers on sugar can plantations in the early 1900s. The workers spoke a variety of different languages, and none spoke english, the language of the plantation owners. Creoles: children who hear pidgin as their input will create a new language that is much more complex linguistically. These languages are called creoles, which are grammatically more complex than pidgins.
