Creoles encapsulate the linguistic effects of the violent social history that most of humanity has been subjected to. Language development is closely dependent on the economic and political features of the societies in whose context they emerged, and current linguistic variability serves to illustrate further the correlation that exists between linguistic structures and pragmatic and social components of a given situation. Creole speakers use polylectal systems, rather than monolithic grammars, and they competently take advantage of the flexible tools that enable them to capture the subtleties of daily human interactions. The first part of this essay, written by Pieter Muysken in 1995, sketches five perspectives on linguistic adequacy in pidgin and creole development. The second part, written by Escure in 2006, provides an update on the current status of creole studies, with special emphasis on research on creole discourse and pragmatic aspects of stylistic variability.