The Experimental Creation of a Pidgin Language

Master, Peter; Schumann, John H.; Sokolik, M.E.

doi:10.1075/jpcl.4.1.03mas

Article published In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 4:1 (1989) ► pp.37–63

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The Experimental Creation of a Pidgin Language

Peter Master | University of California at Los Angeles

John H. Schumann | University of California at Los Angeles

M.E. Sokolik | University of California at Los Angeles

Published online: 1 January 1989

https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.4.1.03mas

Over the past two years several research projects have been undertaken within the Applied Linguistics Program at UCLA to examine the early stages of pidginization. The idea was to create experimentally a pidgin language by having subjects memorize 250 words of a language they did not know and communicate with that lexicon for approximately 40 hours. A German Pidgin and a Farsi Pidgin were created. The experiments and subsequent analyses provided information on the origin and development of the lexicon, deictic systems, and syntax in early pidginization.

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