ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of issues relating to language universals, and pidgins and Creoles. It shows that the study of pidgins and Creoles has been recognized as an important testing ground for universals, but only have serious proposals been put forward. The contents of the bioprogram reflect D. Bickerton's belief that the semantic distinctions whose neural-infrastructure was laid down first in the course of mammalian development will be the first to be lexicaiized/grammaticalized in the course of human language development. Bickerton catalogues a variety of evidence from child language acquisition studies which seems to support the predictions of the bioprogram; namely the hypothesis that the features which children learn effortlessly and early are key features of the bioprogram. P. Muysken is critical of Bickerton's explanation of tense, mood and aspect in Creoles for several reasons. The child's learning task is to select from a range of possible grammars.
