~SCHUCHAR.DT~
'Schuchardt's contributions in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries'
'Schuchardt's critique of the Stannbaum model'
Some of the most important early interest in pidgins and
creoles arose from critiques of genealogical paradigms of
language descent current in the mid-nineteenth century. Foremost
among these was August Schleicher's _Stannbaum_ theory. Two of
his students, Johannes Schmidt and Hugo Schuchardt, developed a
critique of family tree paradigms, the wave theory in which
changes diffused from one language to another like series of
concentric rings washing into each other.
Schuchardt drew most of his evidence from creole
languages, which with their mixed descent fit wave theory and
called into question the validity of linear descent models.
Creoles, formed of disruptive linguistic and cultural contascts,
also provided exceptions to the Neogrammarian's rule of
absolutely regular sound change. Schuchardt was fuzzy on the
distinction between pidgins and creoles, never using the former
term. He did, however, use one of its referents, speaking of
"go-between languages" which rose and fell to meet the exigencies
of particular situations. <[LINK]>
'Schuchardt and "baby talk"'
He is partly responsible for the rise of "baby-talk" models
of creole genesis, in which the target language speakers simplify
their speech, providing the substrate speakers with a faulty
model. ({<[LINK]> Holm88} 27-25) This, along with pseudo-biological
racialist explanations by Schuchardt and others as to the
differences between creoles and their primary lexifier languages
(what Joey Lee Dillard refers to as the "thick lips, thick minds"
theory ({<[LINK]> Dillard --1972} 11; in <[LINK]> Holm88> 23)) are
among the favorite targets of today's Africanists. {<[LINK]>
--refer to Holloway book, Asante (and others?)}
<[LINK] to continue with the history of creole studies>
~schuchar.dt~