Pidgin and Creole

The word pidgin refers to a language used as a means of communication

between people who do not share a common language.
The word pidgin derives from a mispronunciation of the English word business.
The term “Pidgin English” was first applied to the commercial lingua franca used in
southern China and Melanesia, but now pidgin is a generic term that refers to any
simplified language that has derived from two or more parent languages.
When a pidgin develops into a more complex language and becomes the first
language of a community, it is called a creole.
The vocabulary of a typical creole is supplied for the most part by the dominant
language, while the grammar tends to be taken from the subordinate language.
A pidgin is nobody‟s natural language; a creole develops as a new generation
grows up speaking the pidgin as its main language. The grammar of a creole usually
remains simpler than that of the parent languages, but the new language begins to
develop larger vocabularies to provide for a wider range of situations.

Understanding Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar

Prescriptive grammar describes when people focus on talking about how a
language should or ought to be used. One way to remember this association is to think
of going to a doctor‟s office. When a doctor gives you a prescription for medication, it
often includes directions about how you should take your medication as well as what
you should not do when taking your medication. In a similar way, a prescriptive
grammar tells you how you should speak, and what type of language to avoid. This is
commonly found in English classes as well as other language classes, where the aim is
to teach people how to use language in a very particular (typically described as „proper‟
or „correct‟) way.
Descriptive grammar, on the other hand, focuses on describing the language as
it is used, not saying how it should be used. For example, think about a prescriptive rule
like Don’t split infinitives. A descriptive grammarian would see a sentence like “To boldly
go where no man has gone before” and would try to describe how the mental grammar
can cause that ordering of words, rather than saying that the surface form is faulty due
to prescriptive rules (which would require the sentence “To go boldly where no man has
gone before”). Linguistics takes this approach to language.

Synchrony and Diachrony

Synchrony and diachrony are two different and complementary viewpoints

in linguistic analysis. A synchronic approach considers a language at a moment in time
without taking its history into account. Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a
language at a specific point of time, usually the present. By contrast,
a diachronic approach considers the development and evolution of a language through
history. Historical linguistics is typically a diachronic study.

Difference between Oral Communication and Written Communication

Words play a crucial role in communication process, to transmit the message in

the way it is intended to be conveyed. When words are used in the process of
communication, it is known as verbal communication. Verbal transfer of information can
be performed, orally or in written form.

Oral Communication is the oldest means of communication, which is most

commonly used as a medium for the exchange of information. It involves gathering or
disseminating information through spoken words.
 Written Communication, on the other hand, is a formal means of
communication, wherein message is carefully drafted and formulated in written form. It
is kept as a source of reference or legal record. Below are the important differences
between oral and written communication in tabular form.

BASIS FOR
ORAL COMMUNICATION WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION

Meaning Exchange of ideas, Interchange of message,

information and message opinions and information in
through spoken words is Oral written or printed form is
Communication. Written Communication.

What is it? Communication with the help Communication with the help
of words of mouth. of text.

Literacy Not required at all. Necessary for communication.

Transmission of Speedy Slow

message

Proof No record of communication Proper records of

is there. communication are present.

Feedback Immediate feedback can be Feedback takes time.

given

Revision before Not possible Possible

delivering the
message?

Receipt of nonverbal Yes No

cues

Probability of Very high Quite less

misunderstanding
Key Differences between Oral Communication and Written Communication

The following are the major differences between oral communication and written
communication:

1. The type of communication in which the sender transmits information to the

receiver through verbally speaking the message. The communication mode,
which uses written or printed text for exchanging the information is known as
Written Communication.
2. The pre-condition in written communication is that the participants must be
literate whereas there is no such condition in case of oral communication.
3. Proper records are there in Written Communication, which is just opposite in the
case of Oral Communication.
4. Oral Communication is faster than Written Communication.
5. The words once uttered cannot be reversed in the case of Oral Communication.
On the other hand, editing of the original message is possible in Written
Communication.
6. Misinterpretation of the message is possible in Oral Communication but not in
Written Communication.
7. In oral communication, instant feedback is received from the recipient which is
not possible in Written Communication.

Linguistic Universal and Universal Grammar

A linguistic universal is a pattern that occurs systematically across natural

languages, potentially true for all of them. For example, All languages
have nouns and verbs, or If a language is spoken, it has consonants and vowels.

Universal grammar (UG) is a theory in linguistics usually credited to Noam

Chomsky that suggests that the ability to learn grammar is built into the human brain
from birth regardless of language.
 In the 1960s, linguists became interested in a new theory about grammar, or the
laws of language. The theory was popularized by an American linguist named Noam
Chomsky who often focused on the effortless language learning of young children.
Chomsky didn‟t believe that exposure to a language was enough for a young child to
become efficient at understanding and producing a language. He believed that humans
are born with an innate ability to learn languages. According to Chomsky‟s theory, the
basic structures of language are already encoded in the human brain at birth.

This “universal grammar theory” suggests that every language has some of the
same laws. For example, every language has a way to ask a question or make
something negative. In addition, every language has a way to identify gender or show
that something happened in the past or present.

If the basic grammar laws are the same for all languages, a child needs only to
follow the particular set of rules that his peers follow in order to understand and produce
their native language. In other words, his environment determines which language he
will use, but he is born with the tools to learn any language effectively.

Standard English, Common Language and Multiligualism

Standard English is the English that with respect to spelling, grammar,

pronunciation, and vocabulary is substantially uniform though not devoid of regional
differences, that is well established by usage in the formal and informal speech and
writing of the educated, and that is widely recognized as acceptable wherever English
is spoken and understood.

Common Language is a language spoken by two or more people – allowing

them to communicate.
 Multilingualism is the ability of an individual speaker or a community of speakers
to communicate effectively in three or more languages. Contrast with monolingualism,
the ability to use only one language. A person who can speak multiple languages is
known as a polyglot or a multilingual.

World Englishes

English is, of course, multiple Englishes. We are familiar with the U.S.‟s regional
dialects and to some degree with British English, Australian English, and Irish English,
and perhaps a few others. Differences can be considerable. The English spoken
in India shares much with U.S. and British English, but its phonology is quite different,
and so is quite a bit of its lexicon. Many nations, such as Singapore and the Philippines,
use English as a first language, but most speakers also use another language, a co-
language for that region, as well. (For example, in the Philippines speakers might
use Tagalog, Ilocano, or another language, depending on the region.) Here are some of
the world‟s Englishes:

Australian English New Zealand English

British English Nigerian English
Canadian English Philippine English
Caribbean English Scots English
Hong Kong English Singaporean English
Indian English South African English
Irish English U.S. English
Malaysian English Zambian English
Kachru Model “The Three Circles of English”

Throughout the history of England and the British Empire, experts have proposed
many models to try to classify English speakers. However, not all linguists agree in
which classification is the best. In this article I will take a look at one of those
classifications, Kachru‟s model, which was proposed just five decades ago. But before
starting to explain any the model we need to be aware of the fact that this is a three
group model. That is, one that classifies speakers as:

ENL: English as a native language, these are native speakers born in an English-
speaking country, having then this language as their mother tongue or first
tongue.
ESL: English as a second language, these are the non-native speakers who have learnt
English almost at the same time as their mother tongue.
EFL: English as a foreign language, these are the non-native speakers who learnt
English in a country where English is not usually spoken.

Although this classification shows some problems such as the classification of

bilingual speakers, the psychological problems shown in ENL of speakers of non-
standard varieties, and ESL speakers who are not comfortable to use the language in
certain situations. This is the main classification that linguists take into account in order
to write their own models.
For many sociolinguists the most important and accurate model is the one
proposed by Braj Kachru in 1988. His “Three circle model of World Englishes”, states
that there are three circles inside which, the different speakers are classified. The
different circles are:
 The Inner Circle is made up the traditional bases of English and its speakers are
the ones in charge of providing the norms. These places are where the norms are
created and from which they spread to the other circles. Some of the countries that
conform the Inner Circle are USA, UK and Canada.
 The Outer Circle represents the places where they speak official non-native
varieties of English because of their colonial history. The speakers of these places
are the ones who challenge the norms and develop them. They are
mainly ESL. Some of the countries that belong to this circle are India, Pakistan and
Egypt.
 The Expanding Circle is made up by EFL speakers where English is not usually
spoken. In this circle the speakers have to follow the rules established by the Inner
Circle and developed or challenged by the Outer one. Some examples of countries
that belong to this circle are China, Russia and Brazil.
Philippine English
Philippine English is one of the very few American-transplanted Englishes. The
language was introduced in the country by American colonization that started in 1898.
From only 300,000 users or 4% of the population at the beginning of the 20th century, it
is estimated that there were around 42 million or 70% of the population who are able to
use English, almost fifty years after the American colonization ended at the end of the
century (Gonzalez, 1996). In the implementing 1987 Constitution, English is regarded
as one of the two official languages of the Philippines, the other one being the national
language Filipino. It also interacts with 180 other Austronesian-type languages used in
the country, nine of them considered major languages. English plays a major role in the
Philippine society, offering a rightfully unique rendering of the psycho-sociolinguistic
phenomenon of the spread of English: A sizeable number of Filipinos even learn it as a
first language (and sometimes only language). The language is widely used in
government, education, business, science and technology, and the arts but it has also
penetrated the personal and private lives of Filipinos, where code-switching can be
prevalent. Proficiency in English may also be equated with socio-economic status; those
with higher socio-economic status tend to be more proficient in the language. Philippine
English is presently entering a stage of structural systematicization (cf. Borlongan &
Lim, 2012) and is being codified through dictionaries and grammars. Consequently,
some claims are made that Philippine English is already at the phase of endonormative
stabilization (Borlongan, 2011).