Language form and language substance
From a formal to an ecological approach to pidgins and creoles
This paper argues that creolistics has tended to overemphasize the formal and general properties of Creole languages to the neglect of their substantive and singular lexical properties. Rather than assuming that Creoles can express anything their speakers need or want to say as soon as they come into being, this paper shows, with data from a range of Creoles, that lexical adaptation to new natural environments is a prolonged gradual process. The perspective taken is ecolinguistic, i.e. it regards language as a management tool enabling its users to sustain functional links between themselves and their environment. Ecolinguistics judges the adequacy of the lexicon in terms of its ability to do this.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Mufwene, Salikoko S. & Cécile B. Vigouroux
Chen, Sibo
2016.
Language and ecology: A content analysis of ecolinguistics as an emerging research field.
Ampersand 3
► pp. 108 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 january 2025. 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.