[SACC-L] FW: Book Review - An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles (fwd)

Leila Monaghan monaghan at borges.ucsd.edu
Fri Feb 2 15:25:57 UTC 2001


>
     Thought people might be interested in this review, cheers, Leila>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Danny Yee [mailto:danny at ANATOMY.USYD.EDU.AU]
> Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 8:53 AM
> To: ANTHRO-L at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU
> Subject: Book Review - An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles
>
>
> An HTML version of this book review can be found at
>  http://dannyreviews.com/h/Pidgins_Creoles.html
> along with more than five hundred other reviews.
>
>  TITLE: An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles
>  AUTHOR: John Holm
>  PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press 2000
>  SUBJECTS: linguistics
>  OTHER: 282 pages, references, index
>
> _An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles_ is obviously intended to be a
> textbook for linguistics students, but the bulk of it is general enough
> to be of wider appeal.  Holm writes clearly and explains all technical
> terms, and his introduction assumes little.  A pidgin is a reduced
> language resulting from contact between groups with no common language,
> while a creole is a pidgin or jargon that has become the native language
> of an entire speech community, often as a result of slavery or other
> population displacements.  The superstrate language, spoken by those
> with more power, is the source of most of a creole's vocabulary, while
> its substrate languages are those spoken by the source populations.
>
> Of course things aren't that simple.  Chapter two outlines some of
> the theoretical debates over the nature of pidgins, creoles, and the
> processes (such as nativization and stabilisation) that change them.
> Holm begins historically, tracing the early history of European pidgins
> and creoles (touching on Lingua Franca and maritime jargon) and the work
> of Van Name and Schuchardt in the second half of the nineteenth century.
> He switches to a more thematic presentation for the modern debates.
> One of these is between universalists, who argue that all creoles share
> common features resulting from human language universals (in domains such
> as adult language learning) and substratists, who stress the influence
> of substrate languages.  Others centre on the "creole continuum", the
> social continuum of dialects produced when creoles in prolonged contact
> with their superstrates "decreolize", and the amorphous boundaries
> between creoles and post- and semi-creoles.  And one controversial idea
> is monogenesis, that all creoles (or all Atlantic creoles) derive from
> a single source, a Portuguese-based pidgin.
>
> Holm describes his own position as "moderate substratist".
>
>         "[W]hile universal tendencies in adult second-language acquisition
>         carried over into pidiginization and creolization play a role in
>         shaping creole languages... a significant number of the features
>         in a creole language that are not attributable to its superstrate
>         can be traced to parallel features in its substrate languages.
>         Together with creole-internal innovations, borrowing from adstrate
>         languages (those which are neither superstrate nor substrate)
>         and the convergence of all or some of the above, these account
>         for the features that distinguish creoles from their lexical
>         source languages."
>
> _An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles_ is, however, a survey of creoles
> with some suggestions as to theoretical implications, not an argument
> for a particular theoretical position.
>
> Chapter three is a sociolinguistic survey of the world's creoles, with
> a brief introduction to a group of languages followed by a more detailed
> look at one example.  The seven covered are the Portuguese-based creoles
> (example Angolar Creole Portuguese), Spanish-based creoles (Papiamentu
> Creole Spanish), the Dutch-based creoles (Negerhollands Creole Dutch), the
> French-based creoles (Haitian Creole French), the English-based Atlantic
> creoles (Jamaican Creole English), the English-based Pacific pidgins and
> creoles (Tok Pisin), and pidgins and creoles based on other languages
> (Nubi Creole Arabic).  Overall it is clear that "sociolinguistic factors
> are essential parts of the definition of both pidgins and creoles".
>
> The remaining chapters are more technical, but even here Holm glosses
> technical terms as he goes, making it easier for non-specialists.
> When the comparative phonology in chapter five comes to apicals, for
> example, the discussion begins "Apical consonants are produced with
> the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge;
> they can be a stop (e.g. [d]), a nasal [n], a lateral [l] or a flap
> [r].  These sounds are related in a number of African languages ...".
> Creole phonology exhibits some universal tendencies, but also clear
> evidence of substrate influence, of a 'double identity': "the balance of
> European versus non-European features varies considerably from creole
> to creole, all varieties - even post-creoles and semi-creoles - share
> this double identity to some degree".
>
> Chapter four covers lexicosemantics, looking at the kinds of words
> retained and the kinds of changes they undergo.  While most creole lexical
> terms come from the superstrate language, they are often derived from
> archaic and dialect/regional forms.  Substrate influence shows itself
> in some direct borrowing/retention, but more widely in patterns of
> morphological and semantic changes to superstrate lexical items.  Creole
> lexicosemantics is a powerful tool for social history, providing evidence
> for patterns in immigration and slave-taking (highlighting, for example,
> the general importance of Portuguese in the Atlantic slave trade).
>
> Chapter six is a comparison, across the seven creoles described in chapter
> three, of various syntactical features: tense, aspect and other verbal
> markers; forms of "be"; serial verbs; noun phrase features; function
> words; and word order.  Nubi Creole Arabic and Tok Pisin form a kind of
> "outgroup", with Atlantic creoles "a typological group of languages
> _sui generis_".  From this survey Holm finds
>
>         "a strong case for parallel independent development ... It is
>         hardly controversial to observe that the Atlantic creoles arose
>         among speakers of partially similar African languages learning
>         partially similar European languages under partially similar
>         social conditions."
>
> But it has uncovered "no linguistic data that could be interpreted as
> unambiguous evidence of neurally based universals".
>
> --
>
> %T      An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles
> %A      Holm, John
> %I      Cambridge University Press
> %C      Cambridge
> %D      2000
> %O      paperback, references, index
> %G      ISBN 0-521-58581-3
> %P      xxi,282pp
> %K      linguistics
>
> 8 January 2001
>
>         ------------------------------------------------------
>         Copyright (c) 2001 Danny Yee       http://danny.oz.au/
>         Danny Yee's Book Reviews      http://dannyreviews.com/
>         ------------------------------------------------------
>
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> <P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Danny Yee [<A HREF="mailto:danny at ANATOMY.USYD.EDU.AU">mailto:danny at ANATOMY.USYD.EDU.AU</A>]</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 8:53 AM</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: ANTHRO-L at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Book Review - An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles</FONT>
> </P>
> <BR>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>An HTML version of this book review can be found at</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2> <A HREF="http://dannyreviews.com/h/Pidgins_Creoles.html" TARGET="_blank">http://dannyreviews.com/h/Pidgins_Creoles.html</A></FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>along with more than five hundred other reviews.</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2> TITLE: An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2> AUTHOR: John Holm</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2> PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press 2000</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2> SUBJECTS: linguistics</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2> OTHER: 282 pages, references, index</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>_An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles_ is obviously intended to be a</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>textbook for linguistics students, but the bulk of it is general enough</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>to be of wider appeal.  Holm writes clearly and explains all technical</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>terms, and his introduction assumes little.  A pidgin is a reduced</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>language resulting from contact between groups with no common language,</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>while a creole is a pidgin or jargon that has become the native language</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>of an entire speech community, often as a result of slavery or other</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>population displacements.  The superstrate language, spoken by those</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>with more power, is the source of most of a creole's vocabulary, while</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>its substrate languages are those spoken by the source populations.</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>Of course things aren't that simple.  Chapter two outlines some of</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>the theoretical debates over the nature of pidgins, creoles, and the</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>processes (such as nativization and stabilisation) that change them.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>Holm begins historically, tracing the early history of European pidgins</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>and creoles (touching on Lingua Franca and maritime jargon) and the work</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>of Van Name and Schuchardt in the second half of the nineteenth century.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>He switches to a more thematic presentation for the modern debates.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>One of these is between universalists, who argue that all creoles share</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>common features resulting from human language universals (in domains such</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>as adult language learning) and substratists, who stress the influence</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>of substrate languages.  Others centre on the "creole continuum", the</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>social continuum of dialects produced when creoles in prolonged contact</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>with their superstrates "decreolize", and the amorphous boundaries</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>between creoles and post- and semi-creoles.  And one controversial idea</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>is monogenesis, that all creoles (or all Atlantic creoles) derive from</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>a single source, a Portuguese-based pidgin.</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>Holm describes his own position as "moderate substratist".</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>        "[W]hile universal tendencies in adult second-language acquisition</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        carried over into pidiginization and creolization play a role in</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        shaping creole languages... a significant number of the features</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        in a creole language that are not attributable to its superstrate</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        can be traced to parallel features in its substrate languages.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        Together with creole-internal innovations, borrowing from adstrate</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        languages (those which are neither superstrate nor substrate)</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        and the convergence of all or some of the above, these account</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        for the features that distinguish creoles from their lexical</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        source languages."</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>_An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles_ is, however, a survey of creoles</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>with some suggestions as to theoretical implications, not an argument</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>for a particular theoretical position.</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>Chapter three is a sociolinguistic survey of the world's creoles, with</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>a brief introduction to a group of languages followed by a more detailed</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>look at one example.  The seven covered are the Portuguese-based creoles</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>(example Angolar Creole Portuguese), Spanish-based creoles (Papiamentu</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>Creole Spanish), the Dutch-based creoles (Negerhollands Creole Dutch), the</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>French-based creoles (Haitian Creole French), the English-based Atlantic</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>creoles (Jamaican Creole English), the English-based Pacific pidgins and</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>creoles (Tok Pisin), and pidgins and creoles based on other languages</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>(Nubi Creole Arabic).  Overall it is clear that "sociolinguistic factors</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>are essential parts of the definition of both pidgins and creoles".</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>The remaining chapters are more technical, but even here Holm glosses</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>technical terms as he goes, making it easier for non-specialists.</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>When the comparative phonology in chapter five comes to apicals, for</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>example, the discussion begins "Apical consonants are produced with</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge;</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>they can be a stop (e.g. [d]), a nasal [n], a lateral [l] or a flap</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>[r].  These sounds are related in a number of African languages ...".</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>Creole phonology exhibits some universal tendencies, but also clear</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>evidence of substrate influence, of a 'double identity': "the balance of</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>European versus non-European features varies considerably from creole</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>to creole, all varieties - even post-creoles and semi-creoles - share</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>this double identity to some degree".</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>Chapter four covers lexicosemantics, looking at the kinds of words</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>retained and the kinds of changes they undergo.  While most creole lexical</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>terms come from the superstrate language, they are often derived from</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>archaic and dialect/regional forms.  Substrate influence shows itself</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>in some direct borrowing/retention, but more widely in patterns of</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>morphological and semantic changes to superstrate lexical items.  Creole</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>lexicosemantics is a powerful tool for social history, providing evidence</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>for patterns in immigration and slave-taking (highlighting, for example,</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>the general importance of Portuguese in the Atlantic slave trade).</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>Chapter six is a comparison, across the seven creoles described in chapter</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>three, of various syntactical features: tense, aspect and other verbal</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>markers; forms of "be"; serial verbs; noun phrase features; function</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>words; and word order.  Nubi Creole Arabic and Tok Pisin form a kind of</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>"outgroup", with Atlantic creoles "a typological group of languages</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>_sui generis_".  From this survey Holm finds</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>        "a strong case for parallel independent development ... It is</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        hardly controversial to observe that the Atlantic creoles arose</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        among speakers of partially similar African languages learning</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        partially similar European languages under partially similar</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        social conditions."</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>But it has uncovered "no linguistic data that could be interpreted as</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>unambiguous evidence of neurally based universals".</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>--</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>%T      An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%A      Holm, John</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%I      Cambridge University Press</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%C      Cambridge</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%D      2000</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%O      paperback, references, index</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%G      ISBN 0-521-58581-3</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%P      xxi,282pp</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>%K      linguistics</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>8 January 2001</FONT>
> </P>
>
> <P><FONT SIZE=2>        ------------------------------------------------------</FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        Copyright (c) 2001 Danny Yee       <A HREF="http://danny.oz.au/" TARGET="_blank">http://danny.oz.au/</A></FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        Danny Yee's Book Reviews      <A HREF="http://dannyreviews.com/" TARGET="_blank">http://dannyreviews.com/</A></FONT>
> <BR><FONT SIZE=2>        ------------------------------------------------------</FONT>
> </P>
>
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