克里奥耳语言学述评

Creolistics: a Survey

曾被排除在“语言”之外的洋泾浜语和克里奥耳语从本世纪 60年代起已成为社会语言学界一项重大研究课题。语言学家已将语言起源、语言演变、语言认知和学习等语言学基本问题的解决希望寄托在克里奥耳语言学这门新兴学科上。本文对这一新兴学科的形成和发展作了全面介绍 。

Pidgins and creoles have progressed from being described as 'bastard jargon' and dismissed as 'inferiority made half articulate' into being regarded as keys to language origin, language change, language acquisition, and second language learning in the first half of the twentieth century. This paper first identifies five consecutive phases in the development of creolistics, which differ according to the scholastic enthusiasm and the quality if literature. The authors then go to discuss the theories of origin, the literature and the spelling problems of pidgins and creoles. Finally the author argues that creolistic studies have already raised serious questions for linguistic theory in general.