~SCHU-PID.COM~

'A note on Schuchardt's <[LINK]> terminology for pidgins and

the divide betwen representation and communication'

According to Holm, ({<[LINK]> Holm88} 30) Bickerton, in his

introduction to an anthology of S's writings (1979a), claims that

S did not differentiate between native and non-native in his

studies of pidgins and creoles. Holm says that the distinction

was made, in S's use of the term _Vermitlungsprachen_, translated

as "communicative languages" in the edition that B introduces.

Others have translated the term as "interlanguages" and "go-

between languages." All of these translations focus on the

relational aspects of the language, its function as intermediary.

S, according to Holm, says these lects {<[LINK]>--define lect}

should not be called creoles. By default, and by Holm's

standards, they are thus pidgins. This is important in light of

the pidgin's relational status as a means communication, ill-

suited to generative tasks of representation. <[LINK]> By

Holm's own standards (which are decidedly sociolinguistic in a

way that is antagonistic to generative insights) the difference

between pidgins and creoles is reducible to whether or not they

are acting solely as interlanguages or as something else as well.

I would posit that he is correct and that the 'something

else' is representation. This is further clarified by Holm's

quotation of S as saying that _Vermitlungsprachen_ are used in

situations where both sides retain their native languages--that

is, their languages of representation. This would of course

include creoles by Holm's definition. As a result, a creole

speaker speaking to an immigrant would be relying on a pidginized

creole (!) in communicative context, even though representing

herself in the native creole. This explains the different

findings for the same populations concerning whether creoles are

continous or discrete from pidgins. The answer is both--creoles

are continuous in the sociolinguistic/communicative context

(especially in situations where there is a continual influx of

new non-creole speakers) but representationally discrete.

~schu-pid.com~