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10 - Young Children Creating Grammars: Are Twins’ Languages Like Pidgins or Creoles?

from Part II - The Acquisition of Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2025

By
Peter Bakker
Edited by
Dany Adone  and
Astrid Gabel
Dany Adone
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
Astrid Gabel
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
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Summary

Bakker’s chapter discusses the syntactic development in twin grammars. Twins and other young children are sometimes reported to create their own languages, sometimes called autonomous languages. The grammars of these languages are quite rudimentary, and the lexicon is derived from the language(s) spoken around them. Bickerton claimed that Creoles share structural properties because the languages have been created by children. Bakker looks at the structures of documented autonomous languages and compares them with Creole languages. It appears that the autonomous languages have more in common with pidgins than with Creole languages, structurally, even though they are created by children, like Creole languages. The twin situation influences the rudimentary properties of the autonomous languages.

Keywords

autonomous/twin languagesPidgins & Creoleslanguage creationLanguage Bioprogrampragmaprogram
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond
 , pp. 170 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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