That’s all!: Competition and selection

Aboh, Enoch Oladé

doi:10.1075/cll.35.20abo

In:Complex Processes in New Languages
Edited by Enoch O. Aboh and Norval Smith
[Creole Language Library 35] 2009
► pp. 317–344

Get fulltext from our e-platform

Download Book PDF

Competition and selection

That’s all!

Enoch Oladé Aboh

Published online: 17 December 2009

https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.35.20abo

This paper demonstrates that the notion of simplicity as often used in creole studies is completely irrelevant to the understanding of the structure, as well as the genesis, of creole languages. This is because creole languages are linguistic hybrids in the biological sense. They emerge from the recombination of linguistic features from different languages. Given this perspective, it appears that what could be of some relevance to the study of language change is rather the notion of complexity. Within the framework of Competition and Selection as proposed in Mufwene (2001ff.), and adopted in this paper, creole languages develop opaque syntactic and semantic features. These could not have arisen solely in the context of their source languages. Accordingly, the common claim that creoles are simplified versions of their sources is a fallacy, just as it would be to claim in biology that hybrids are genetically simplified children of their parents.

Cited by (54)

Cited by 54 other publications

Order by:

Baptista, Marlyse & Olivia Sedlacek

2025. A Matter of Degree: All Languages are Mixed. In The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax, ► pp. 193 ff.

Hayden, Brian

2024. Selectional factors in pronominal system formation. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages

Lohndal, Terje & Michael T. Putnam

2024. The importance of features and exponents. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 14:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Peltier, Joy P. G.

2024. Pragmatic Markers in Kwéyòl Donmnik, French, & English: Language Contact & Creole Emergence through the Lens of Powerful Little Words. Études créoles 41 | 1-2

Claire Bowern

2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages,

Fox, Susan, Anthony Grant & Laura Wright

2023. Contact Theory and the History of English. In Medieval English in a Multilingual Context [New Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ], ► pp. 17 ff.

O’Shannessy, Carmel

2021. Conventionalized creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri. In Variation Rolls the Dice [Contact Language Library, 59], ► pp. 81 ff.

O’Shannessy, Carmel

2021. How ordinary child language acquisition processes can lead to the unusual outcome of a mixed language. International Journal of Bilingualism 25:2 ► pp. 458 ff.

O’Shannessy, Carmel

2024. The influences of adult and child speakers in the emergence of Light Warlpiri, an Australian mixed language. In Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change [Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, 14], ► pp. 179 ff.

Herbert, Marjorie & Acrisio Pires

2020. Bilingualism and Code-Blending Among Deaf ASL-English Bilinguals. In New Trends in Language Acquisition Within the Generative Perspective [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 49], ► pp. 99 ff.

O'Shannessy, Carmel & Lucinda Davidson

2020. Language Contact and Change through Child First Language Acquisition. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 67 ff.

Manfredi, Stefano & Fida Bizri

2019. Arabic-based pidgins and creoles. In The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Sociolinguistics, ► pp. 134 ff.

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.

2018. Areal diffusion and the limits of grammaticalization. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 337 ff.

Ansaldo, Umberto, Walter Bisang & Pui Yiu Szeto

2018. Grammaticalization in isolating languages and the notion of complexity. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 219 ff.

Arkadiev, Peter & Timur Maisak

2018. Grammaticalization in the North Caucasian languages. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 116 ff.

Coupe, Alexander R.

2018. Grammaticalization processes in the languages of South Asia. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 189 ff.

Dahl, Östen

2018. Grammaticalization in the languages of Europe. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 79 ff.

Esseesy, Mohssen

2018. Typological features of grammaticalization in Semitic. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 35 ff.

Haig, Geoffrey

2018. Grammaticalization and inflectionalization in Iranian. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 57 ff.

Haspelmath, Martin

2018. Revisiting the anasynthetic spiral. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 97 ff.

Heine, Bernd

2018. Grammaticalization in Africa. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 16 ff.

Johanson, Lars & Éva Á. Csató

2018. Grammaticalization in Turkic. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 146 ff.

Klamer, Marian

2018. Typology and grammaticalization in the Papuan languages of Timor, Alor, and Pantar. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 235 ff.

McWhorter, John H.

2018. Is grammaticalization in creoles different?. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 394 ff.

Mithun, Marianne

2018. Shaping typology through grammaticalization: North America. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 309 ff.

Moyse-Faurie, Claire

2018. Grammaticalization in Oceanic languages. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 282 ff.

Mushin, Ilana

2018. Grammaticalization and typology in Australian Aboriginal languages. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 263 ff.

Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine

2018. Introduction. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 1 ff.

Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine

2018. Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective,

Narrog, Heiko, Seongha Rhee & John Whitman

2018. Grammaticalization in Japanese and Korean. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 166 ff.

Smith, Hiram L.

2018. Addressing questions of grammaticalization in creoles. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 372 ff.

Zariquiey, Roberto

2018. Diachronic stories of body-part nouns in some language families of South America. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. 350 ff.

Zribi-Hertz, Anne & Loïc Jean-Louis

2018. Les grammaires des noms de pays en martiniquais et en haïtien et la question du "prototype créole". Études créoles :35 | 1-2

Aboh, Enoch O.

2017. Population factors, multilingualism and the emergence of grammar. In Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas [Creole Language Library, 53], ► pp. 23 ff.

Aboh, Enoch O.

2019. Our creolized tongues. In Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 256], ► pp. 287 ff.

Aboh, Enoch O.

2019. Pourquoi parlons-nous tous un créole ? Le changement linguistique à travers le prisme de la créolistique. Faits de Langues 49:1 ► pp. 25 ff.

Aboh, Enoch O.

2020. Lessons From Neuro-(a)-Typical Brains: Universal Multilingualism, Code-Mixing, Recombination, and Executive Functions. Frontiers in Psychology 11

Bakker, Peter

2017. Key concepts in the history of creole studies. In Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches, ► pp. 5 ff.

Goldshtein, Yonatan

2017. The simple emerging from the complex. In Creole Studies – Phylogenetic Approaches, ► pp. 193 ff.

Baptista, Marlyse

2016. Stepping back to move forward. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 31:1 ► pp. 184 ff.

Baptista, Marlyse

2016. Creole formation and L2 acquisition. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 31:2 ► pp. 361 ff.

Baptista, Marlyse

2017. Competition and selection in creole genesis. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 32:1 ► pp. 138 ff.

Baptista, Marlyse

2017. Pidgins and Creoles. In Oxford Handbook Topics in Linguistics,

Aboh, Enoch Oladé & Michel DeGraff

2014. Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and Gùngbè. In The Sociolinguistics of Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series, 154], ► pp. 203 ff.

Axelsen, Jacob Bock & Susanna Manrubia

2014. River density and landscape roughness are universal determinants of linguistic diversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281:1784 ► pp. 20133029 ff.

Mufwene, Salikoko S.

2010. SLA AND THE EMERGENCE OF CREOLES. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 32:3 ► pp. 359 ff.

Mufwene, Salikoko S.

2014. Language ecology, language evolution, and the actuation question. In The Sociolinguistics of Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series, 154], ► pp. 13 ff.

Mufwene, Salikoko S.

2014. The case was never closed. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 29:1 ► pp. 157 ff.

Mufwene, Salikoko S.

2020. Genetic Creolistics as Part of Evolutionary Linguistics. In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ► pp. 393 ff.

[no author supplied]

2015. Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages [Creole Language Library, 48],

[no author supplied]

2018. Preface. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. viii ff.

[no author supplied]

2018. Series preface. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. vii ff.

[no author supplied]

2018. List of abbreviations. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. ix ff.

[no author supplied]

2018. Copyright Page. In Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, ► pp. iv ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 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.