Re: glossogenesis (was: Indo-European question)

On Sun, 24 Jun 2001 Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
> The creole grammar is formed by the children trying to
> acquire a first language in a pidgin-speaking community.
> In what sense do those children already speak a language
> with a full-featured grammar?
>
> The pidgin-speaking adults have nothing to do with it ---
> although they presumably do command another language,
> the point is that the creole is formed because the various
> native grammers cannot be used by the adults (because
> they aren't shared) and therefore the children aren't
> exposed to them.
You are telling me that the children aren't exposed to their
own parents' native grammars. If that were true, it would
mean that a child's own parents avoid talking to their own
children in their own native language -- and avoid talking to
each other in front of their own children in their own native
language -- and that those parents instead choose to speak
to each other and to their own children in only the crude
pidgin that's designed to permit imperfect communication
with foreigners.  As a parent, I cannot imagine doing that.

--Tommie

Reply