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1 results

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

  • from Part I - The Evolution of Syntax
  • Edited by Dany Adone, Universität zu Köln, Astrid Gabel, Universität zu Köln
  • Book:
    The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
    Published online:
    19 February 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025, pp 74-95

  • 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.