Atlantic, Pacific, and world-wide features in English-lexicon contact languages

Abstract

This article analyzes the earliest known attestations of 302 lexical, functional, and grammatical features in 13 English-lexicon contact languages in the Atlantic and the Pacific. The main aims are (i) to shed light on the historical relationships between the individual varieties, (ii) to learn about the mechanisms at work in their genesis and development, and (iii) to examine the significance of features common to both geographical regions. Overall, our intention is to demonstrate that a statistical feature-based approach as proposed here can yield valuable insights into the development and interrelationships between Pidgins and Creoles.