From: ehlsmith
Message: 23883
Date: 2003-06-26
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
...[cut]...
> Creole grammars don't start from scratch (unless you are a follower
> of Chomsky or Psammetik). They start from the grammar of the native
> language of the new speaker.
Aren't many, if not most, creoles [using the classic definition] the
result of a multiplicity of languages being thrown together, not just
two? In those cases where does the grammar come from? There is no one
"native language". And in any case, isn't the "native language" of
the first generation of creole speakers the preceding pidgin?
...[cut]..
This
> looks like going half the way down the path of creoles, but why
don't
> we have a word for that phenomenon? Extending the definition
> of 'creole' seems the natural way to go.
Evidently not to most linguists though.
Regards,
Ned Smith