Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages
An Introduction
Author
This lucid and theory-neutral introduction to the study of pidgins, creoles and mixed languages covers both theoretical and empirical issues pertinent to the field of contact linguistics. Part I presents the theoretical background, with chapters devoted to the definition of terms, the sociohistorical settings, theories on the genesis of pidgins and creoles, as well as discussions on language variation and the sociology of language. Part II empirically tests assumptions made about the linguistic characteristics of pidgins and creoles by systematically comparing them with other natural languages in all linguistic domains. This is the first introduction that consistently applies the findings of the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures and systematically includes extended pidgins and mixed languages in the discussion of each linguistic feature. The book is designed for students of courses with a focus on pidgins, creoles and mixed languages, as well as typologically oriented courses on contact linguistics.
[Creole Language Library, 48] 2015. xxvii, 599 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
Acknowledgements | p. xxiii
-
List of abbreviations | pp. xxv–xxvii
-
General introduction | pp. 1–11
-
Part I. General aspects
-
1. Pidgins | pp. 15–41
-
2. Creoles | pp. 43–67
-
3. Mixed languages | pp. 69–97
-
4. Sociohistorical contexts of pidgins and creoles | pp. 99–131
-
5. Theories on the formation processes of pidgins | pp. 133–169
-
6. Theories on the formation processes of creoles | pp. 171–209
-
7. Variation and change | pp. 211–241
-
8. Language in society | pp. 243–282
-
Part II. Linguistic features
-
Introduction to Part II | pp. 285–293
-
9. Phonology | pp. 295–323
-
10. Morphology | pp. 325–351
-
11. The noun phrase | pp. 353–387
-
12. The verb phrase and predication | pp. 389–431
-
13. Simple sentences | pp. 433–461
-
14. Complex sentences | pp. 463–495
-
15. Pragmatics | pp. 497–530
-
Glossary | pp. 531–538
-
-
Index | pp. 579–599
“Velupillai's comprehensive introduction sets new standards by taking the recent typological work on pidgins and creoles into account. Other strong points are the extensive chapter on mixed languages, the many concise yet surprisingly rich language sketches, and the truly global coverage, encompassing the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific worlds. Highly recommended.”
Pieter C. Muysken, Radboud University Nijmegen
“This introduction to Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages has raised the bar of introductory books to a new level. Its scholarly rigor and breadth is exemplary, as it provides no less than 45 language sketches. It's also pedagogically very clever in providing exercises, key points and language snapshots that promise to be invaluable resources for both students and instructors alike. A must have for any linguist interested in contact linguistics.”
Marlyse Baptista, University of Michigan
“This encyclopedic volume, written for those new to the study as well as for the specialist, presents in great detail the rapidly-growing field of contact linguistics. Copiously illustrated with maps and texts, containing much original material and providing questions for discussion with each chapter this is, in my opinion, the best available source on the subject yet. It will be the required textbook for my course in pidgin and creole languages.”
Ian Hancock, University of Texas at Austin
“Velupillai set out to provide a well-organised state of the art introductory textbook for use in many different countries, incorporating APiCS and other recent data and demonstrating how the scientific method can be used by linguists. She has accomplished this goal.”
Craig Alan Volker, Divine Word University, in Language and Linguistics in Melanesia. Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea Vol. 33(1): pag. 78-81, 2015
“Few surveys of contact linguistics have been so committed to remaining based in documentation, and VV covers so much material that she could not address all possible viewpoints and implications. She excellently summarizes e.g. the salient points of numerous creole-genesis theories (in tables on pp.187-188). Her empirical statistical testing in Part II of traits assumed typical of contact languages is groundbreaking. In many instances, it provides surprising insights, in others it finally confirms long-promoted hypotheses, and in the considerable number of cases where VV is able to demonstrate objectively that we lack sufficient data for generalization, we are effectively directed to specific questions needing further research. The latter, if emphasized by an attentive instructor, could prove a life-changing encounter for budding young contact linguists, and this in itself is a great reason to highly recommend this book.”
David Douglas Robertson, on Linguist List 27.2332 (2016)
“This book is certainly a text book sensu stricto which can be used in teaching creolistics with confidence. It is very close to being a one-volume handbook as well. Although it is not an attempt to be comprehensive in its coverage of the languages within its purview, it includes information on a very impressive number of languages, and presents this and the theoretical underpinnings and concerns of PCMLs in clear language which one does not need to be a student of linguistics to understand, though a glossary is provided. As we can see from the dates of accession listed with websites, many of which are in the early months of 2015, every attempt has been made to make the work as up to date as possible. The most comprehensive book on PCMLs probably cannot be written in under a thousand pages. V has accomplished something rather close to this in six hundred. This book will be a go-to work for its subject for decades to come, and a revised edition would secure this dominance. Nobody who is curious about or who is working in creolistics or PCML studies should be without a copy.”
Anthony P. Grant, Edge Hill University, in Studies in Language 41(3): 808-812, 2017
“This book is certainly a text book sensu stricto which can used in teaching creolistics with confidence. It is very close to being a one-volume handbook as well. Although it is not an attempt to be comprehensive in its coverage of the languages within its purview, it includes information on a very impressive number of languages, and presents this and the theoretical underpinnings and concerns of [pidgins, creoles and mixed languages] PCMLs in clear language which one does not need to be a student of linguistics to understand, though a glossary is provided. As we can see from the dates of accession listed with websites, many of which are in the early months of 2015, every attempt has been made to make the work as up to date as possible. The most comprehensive book on PCMLs probably cannot be written in under a thousand pages. V has accomplished something rather close to this in six hundred. This book will be a go-to for its subject for decades to come, and a revised edition would secure this dominance. Nobody who is curious about or who is working in creolistics or PCML studies should be without a copy.”
Anthony P. Grant, Edge Hill University, in Studies in Language 41:3, 808-812 pp., 2017
“PCML is highly recommended. One could even go so far as to say it is unavoidable by any reader trying to understand where creolistics and contact linguistics are headed.”
George Lang, University of Ottawa, in Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32:2 (2017), pag 442-445
“
Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages is a comprehensive textbook and sourcebook, excellent for courses in the field of Creole studies, linguistic anthropology (alongside, for example, Ahearn 2012), language contact (together with Matras 2009), or linguistic typology (together with Velupillai’s own textbook, 2012). Additionally, the individual chapters have a unified format (overview, main topic, brief introduction to the three discussed languages, snapshots, summary, key points and exercises), which makes them self-contained units, appropriate for separate usage as supplementary material in different linguistics courses. Velupillai’s hope that “this book will not only whet the appetite of the newcomer to the study of pidgin, creole, and mixed languages, but also serve the linguistic community in general as a guide to the current state of the field” (5) has been fully realized.”
Piotr Stalmaszczyk, University of Łódź, in Linguistica Silesiana 38, 2017
Cited by
Cited by 56 other publications
Aboh, Enoch O.
2019. Our creolized tongues. In Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 256], ► pp. 287 ff. 
Alshammari, Wafi Fhaid
2021. Tense/Aspect Marking in Arabic-Based Pidgins. Sustainable Multilingualism 18:1 ► pp. 14 ff.
Andrason, Alexander
2021. Сашко-lect: The translanguaged grammar of a hyper multilingual global nomad. Part 3 – Contact languages and translanguaging. Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 138:3 ► pp. 119 ff.
Bakker, Peter
2020. Contact and Mixed Languages. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 201 ff.
Benítez-Torres, Carlos M.
Biewer, Carolin & Kate Burridge
2019. World Englishes Old and New: English in Australasia and the South Pacific. In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 282 ff.
Blasi, Damián E., Susanne Maria Michaelis & Martin Haspelmath
2017. Grammars are robustly transmitted even during the emergence of creole languages. Nature Human Behaviour 1:10 ► pp. 723 ff.
Boas, Hans C. & Heike Wiese
2023. „Ein Land – eine Sprache?“. In Deutsche Sprache der Gegenwart, ► pp. 71 ff.
Boer, Jennifer, Mary Claessen & Cori Williams
2022. Acquisition of Tok Pisin phonology in the multilingual highlands of Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 24:3 ► pp. 283 ff.
Carrie, Erin & Robert M. McKenzie
2018. American or British? L2 speakers’ recognition and evaluations of accent features in English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39:4 ► pp. 313 ff.
Daleszynska-Slater, Agata, Miriam Meyerhoff & James A. Walker
Annick De Houwer & Lourdes Ortega
2018. The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism,
Deumert, Ana
Fleming, Will, Jamiika Thomas, Osmar Aarón López-Medina, Matthew L. Locey & Linda J. Hayes
2022. Evolution of Cultural Interbehavior in a Turn-Based Matching-to-Sample Procedure. The Psychological Record 72:1 ► pp. 43 ff.
Hackert, Stephanie
2019. The perfect in English-lexifier pidgins and creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 34:2 ► pp. 195 ff.
Hackert, Stephanie
2021. Creole Distinctiveness?. In English and Spanish, ► pp. 92 ff.
Hancock, Ian F.
2016. The Germans and German influence on Krio, and the Krio R. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 31:2 ► pp. 390 ff.
Hing, Jia Wen
Hoffmann, Thomas
2021. The Cognitive Foundation of Post-colonial Englishes,
Honkasalo, Sami
2024. Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan as a Contact Language: An Analysis of Russian Influence. Languages 9:2 ► pp. 59 ff.
Jourdan, Christine
2021. Pidgins and Creoles: Debates and Issues. Annual Review of Anthropology 50:1 ► pp. 363 ff.
Korfhagen, David, Rajiv Rao & Sandro Sessarego
2021. Chapter 7. Declarative intonation in four Afro-Hispanic varieties. In Aspects of Latin American Spanish Dialectology [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 32], ► pp. 155 ff.
Lee, Nala H.
2020. The Status of Endangered Contact Languages of the World. Annual Review of Linguistics 6:1 ► pp. 301 ff.
Levisen, Carsten, Carol Priestley, Sophie Nicholls & Yonatan Goldshtein
2017. Chapter 15. The semantics of Englishes and Creoles. In Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches, ► pp. 345 ff.
Lister, C.J., B. Walker & N. Fay
2020. Innovation and enculturation in child communication: a cross-sectional study. Evolutionary Human Sciences 2
Maitz, Péter & Craig Alan Volker
Meyer, Robin
2023. Towards a Typology of Contact‐Induced Change: Questions, Problems and the Path Ahead. Transactions of the Philological Society 121:3 ► pp. 336 ff.
Mufwene, Salikoko S.
2019. Pidgins and Creoles. In The Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 299 ff.
Operstein, Natalie
2018. Inflection in Lingua Franca: from Haedo’s Topographia to the Dictionnaire de la langue franque. Morphology 28:2 ► pp. 145 ff.
Danae Perez, Marianne Hundt, Johannes Kabatek & Daniel Schreier
2021. English and Spanish,
Rao, Rajiv & Sandro Sessarego
2018. The intonation of Chota Valley Spanish: Contact-induced phenomena at the discourse-phonology interface. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 11:1 ► pp. 163 ff.
Rickford, John Russell & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
2019. Symbol of Powerlessness and Degeneracy, or Symbol of Solidarity and Truth?. In Variation, Versatility and Change in Sociolinguistics and Creole Studies, ► pp. 31 ff.
Roberge, Paul T.
2020. Germanic Contact Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics, ► pp. 833 ff.
Saldana, Carmen, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby & Jennifer Culbertson
2021. Is Regularization Uniform across Linguistic Levels? Comparing Learning and Production of Unconditioned Probabilistic Variation in Morphology and Word Order. Language Learning and Development 17:2 ► pp. 158 ff.
Schneider, Britta
2021. Creole prestige beyond modernism and methodological nationalism. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 36:1 ► pp. 12 ff.
Schneider, Britta
2023. Posthumanism and the role of orality and literacy in language ideologies in Belize. World Englishes 42:1 ► pp. 150 ff.
Schneider, Edgar W.
2021. The Emergence of Global Languages. In English and Spanish, ► pp. 10 ff.
Schneider, Edgar W. & Sarah Buschfeld
2022. The Geographical and Demographic Expansion of English. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 583 ff.
Spears, Arthur K.
2017. Unstressed been: Past and Present in African American English. American Speech 92:2 ► pp. 151 ff.
Szeto, Pui Yiu, Stephen Matthews & Virginia Yip
2019. Bilingual children as “laboratories” for studying contact outcomes: Development of perfective aspect. Linguistics 57:3 ► pp. 693 ff.
Tan, Gan-ling
Truan, Naomi
van der Auwera, Johan
2017. Englishes, English creoles and their negative indefinites. In Negation and Contact [Studies in Language Companion Series, 183], ► pp. 115 ff.
Velupillai, Viveka
2016. Interview with Edgar W. Schneider. Journal of English Linguistics 44:4 ► pp. 346 ff.
Velupillai, Viveka
2016. Review of Drechsel (2014): Language Contact in the Early Colonial Pacific: Maritime Polynesian Pidgin before Pidgin English. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 17:1 ► pp. 153 ff.
Watkowska, Dorota
2021. Redundancy in ELF: A Corpus-Based Study on Negative and Modal Concord. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies :30/2 ► pp. 71 ff.
Willems, Matthieu, Etienne Lord, Louise Laforest, Gilbert Labelle, François-Joseph Lapointe, Anna Maria Di Sciullo & Vladimir Makarenkov
2016. Using hybridization networks to retrace the evolution of Indo-European languages. BMC Evolutionary Biology 16:1
H. Ekkehard Wolff
2019. The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics,
Yule, George
2016. The Study of Language 6th Edition,
[no author supplied]
2016. Regional Variation in Language. In The Study of Language 6th Edition, ► pp. 268 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Connections between Sociolinguistics and Pidgin-Creole Studies. In Variation, Versatility and Change in Sociolinguistics and Creole Studies, ► pp. 112 ff.
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
2022. Emergence and Spread of Some European Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 425 ff.
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF/2ZP: Linguistics/Pidgins & Creoles
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General