Trade languages in the world: general overview

Författare

Junichi Toyota
Borko Kovačević

Summary, in English

In this paper, we discuss common features found in what we term trade languages. Some languages change their grammatical shape dramatically after intense contacts with other languages. Pidgin and creole languages are often discussed in terms of contacts, but trade languages are slightly different from them on the following points: trade languages are normally formed with mutually intelligible languages, including different dialects; the main purpose of trade languages is aimed at hearers' better comprehension, not at expressing one's own personal viewpoint; there is a very high degree of reliance on syntactic structures and details of semantic structures are suppressed. Trade languages have not been given its deserved status, but it can possibly form a specific type of language.

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