29 2. Overall framework of contact phenomena no common language enter into contact with one another. The result of this encounter is the ad hoc creation of an auxiliary language. Thus, “[p]idgins result from the communicative strategies of adults who already have a native command of at least one language” (Sebba 1997: 14). Some pidgins which are created out of the need for communication survive years or centuries, others die out the moment they are no longer needed. Sebba (1997: 15) finds four points that are crucial in order to define a pidgin: Pidgins have no native speakers. They are acquired informally and are second languages for those who speak them. They are governed by convention. The vocabulary and basic grammatical structures are accepted by the speakers. They are not mutually intelligible with their source language. Pidgin English, Pidgin French or Pidgin Portuguese are not mutually intelligible with their lexifier languages. A fluent speaker of English would not be able to understand a new language without learning its words and grammar. Pidgins have grammars which are simpler than the grammars of their source language. Simplification of grammatical rules is an inherent feature of all emerging pidgins. The lack of native speakers is a determining aspect which differentiates pidgins from creoles. The newly created vocabulary can resemble the lexifier language but the grammar is usually different, though simplified. The simplification of grammar and reduction of lexifier language structures is motivated by the need to obtain instantaneous communication. Thus, it is the speakers who mold the emerging contact language so that it fulfills the basic communicative requirements. Pidgins come into being under somewhat unusual circumstances that always involve language contact. Such contact contributes to the creation of an auxiliary language whose characteristic feature is simplification of grammar and vocabulary reduction. Sebba (1997: 70) looks for an explanation of the distinctiveness of pidgins in terms of their origin as contact languages. The outcome of his observation is that “[…] similarities which are widely shared among pidgins and creoles are not just at a general level, but extend to specific patterns” (1997: 70–71). When considering the system of different verbs in many contact languages, significant similarities are to be found, e.g. “in the ordering of negation, tense and aspect markers” (Sebba 1997: 71). In the sentence “I have not seen him” written in five contact languages, Tok
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