ABSTRACT
R. A. Hall is generally credited with the notion that pidgins have life-cycles, although the idea is present in the work of Hugo Schuchardt. He uses the term to contrast the different histories and social functions of pidgins by way of comparison with 'natural languages'. P. Muhlhausler depicts the pidgin-creole life-cycle, where the expansion of pidgins in a post-pidgin continuum, and the expansion of Creoles in a post-Creole continuum are dimensions of the some process. The chapter looks at the main stages in the pidgin continuum, i.e. jargon, stable pidgin and expanded pidgin. Muhlhausler characterizes each in terms of structural properties and functional characteristics. There are languages like West African Pidgin, which 'run the gamut all the way from true creole - as a mother-tongue and home language - to what one might call "minimal pidgin", the exiguous jargon often used between the Europeans and their domestic servants'.
