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  • Author(s): Banks, Eric
  • Source:
    Chronicle of Higher Education. 5/23/2008, Vol. 54 Issue 37, pB7-B10. 4p. 1 Color Photograph.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      Bickerton, Derek; Sociolinguistics; Mixed languages; Pidgin languages; Research ethics; Linguistics; Experimental design
    • Abstract:
      The article focuses on the linguistic formation experiment proposed by scholar Derek Bickerton in 1976. Details are given outlining the linguistic theories of hybridization and formation of "pigdin" common vocabularies and grammars in circumstances of multiple separate languages. The "desert island" experiment designed by Bickerton to empirically test the validity of such theories is also outlined. Discussion is given outlining the approval and later rejection of the project, citing several psychological and sociological challenges inherent within it. Questions are raised regarding the scientific and moral legitimacy of the experiment and what it could have produced had it been carried out.