Pidgins and Creoles - Essay Example

A sentence in pidgin lacks prepositions, articles, subordinate clause and auxiliary verbs that connect the subject. Pidgin sentences are a collection of verbs, nouns and adjectives. Though the idea is communicated well, the contextual detail in the information is lost while communicating through a pidgin. Pidgins usually develop into creoles. Creoles follow grammatical rules with common rules for speakers and have a structural format for sentences. The metamorphosis from a pidgin to creoles is viewed as a natural development to the persistence of the language (Stafford).

In the creole sentence, 'But how child of uncle Oom do die then', it may be noted that the tense deviates from the standard use of the verb. The phonology is poorly constructed by using the verbs incorrectly, though the message is conveyed to the listener. The word 'do' is improperly used instead of the word 'did', since the reason for death should be asked in the past tense. The poor structure of the sentence and usage of grammar may be attributed to the incapability of the speaker to use the lexis.

However, the usage of then at the end of the sentence gives a clear picture to the listener that the speaker is questioning an incident. While analyzing the sentence it. Even if the speaker has used proper grammar the words in the sentence should easily interconnect itself resulting in the usage of a proper lexis (Willis p.23). In the above sentence though the message is communicated through a collection of words, it does not give a pleasing sound to the listener thus substantiating that the sentence is a creole.

While evaluating the sentence, 'Yes, be one nice question, TAG. Well, I PAST be at Novar,' the correct usage of lexis gains importance. The word nice is usually used as an adjective to appreciate the quality of a behavior or material. The poor organization of words thus denotes wrong use of phonology in a pidgin. In this creole, the word nice has been used instead of the word good. The incorrect usage of tense is again found in the sentence, I be at Novar, I be with one man, PAST IMP talk story with one man, where the word 'be' is used instead of was.

The repeated use of the word 'man' indicates the wrong usage of lexis, since the creole speaker is less familiar with extensive vocabulary to use common words like 'guy' to refer to a person and therefore results in the poor usage of words or phonology differentiating the sentence from standard English. It is again noted in the sentence, 'Then one man ride come with one bike, but the man who come take me, he and the-pl DEM NEG be good' that the speaker has used two verbs consecutively. The words 'ride' and 'come' is used to communicate the arrival of a person denoting improper grammar, phonology and lexis.

The speaker has used the native language in the sentence with no grammatical continuity. The sentence, 'Then the man stay at street then he IMP shout call