Morphological simplicity in pidgins and creoles

My first two columns will go back to the basics, and look at two ofthe fundamental notions used to define pidgin and creole languages – simplification and elaboration (or expansion), following Syea’s (2002: 200) call for a reassessment of these terms. I’ll start here with simplification (or simplicity). First, I’ll illustrate various conceptions of this notion, and then delineate a particular approach that I’ll use to talk about the origins of morphological simplicity in pidgins and creoles.