ABSTRACT
It is not possible to select any one theory as the exclusive explanation for the evolution and development of pidgins, but it seems most likely that universal processes of simplification are at work in contact situations. Research suggests (Ferguson, 1971, pp.141-50) that each language has a 'simple register' which is used in linguistic contacts where no common language exists. It is likely that human beings all over the world respond to contact situations according to an innate blueprint. There are, it appears, linguistic universals which are tapped in such situations where people speaking mutually unintelligible languages are obliged to communicate facts and information. One reason why pidgins were not replaced by standard varieties of the languages to which they are related is that once a viable medium of communication had been established there was little pressure to replace it. Specifically, a child is encouraged to replace his baby talk with the appropriate adult norm, not because he has failed to communicate but in order that he may fit in with the adult community. People who acquire pidgins are not subjected to similar social pressure. An additional reason is that once a pidgin developed in a multilingual area like Cameroon it became valuable not only as a medium of communication between native and non-native, but between natives who did not share a mother tongue. Evidence suggests that elaborated pidgins have only developed in multilingual regions where their most frequent users have not had access to the standard European language. It is significant that the creole Englishes which today differ most fundamentally from English are those in Surinam where there has been virtually no English influence since the seventeenth century. In other varieties the influence from standard English is clear, especially in places like Jamaica or Sierra Leone where English is the language of government and of the classroom.
