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Sociolinguistics » Focus and content » Language Birth: Pidgin and Creole Languages » Pidgins » Design Features of Pidgin Grammars » Lack of Morphological Complexity

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Lack of Morphological Complexity

Pidgins are characterized by a lack of morphological complexity:

The reduced morphological complexity of Pidgins is due to a lack of inflections. Number (singular/plural) is also not morphologically marked. The same goes for case (subject/object), tense, gender or grammatical agreement.

In Tok Pisin, nouns and pronouns do not have inflections:

[Number]: the plural of nouns is not indicated by inflection, i.e. the noun remains uninflected. Instead plural marking is realized by an actual number, by the context or by the separate lexical item 'ol' (from English ‘all’) which functions as a plural marker:

Long dispela wik, moa long 40 meri bilong Milen Be
Along this-fellow week, more along 40 woman belong Milne Bay
`This week, more than 40 women from Milne Bay

provins i bung long wanpela woksop long Alotau
Province he meet along one-fellow workshop along Alotau.
Province are meeting in a workshop at Alotau`

Ol opisa bilong Melanesin Envairomen Faundesen
All officer belong Melanesian Environment Foundation
‘The officers of the Melanesian Environment Foundation’

[Case]: In Tok Pisin the object form is not marked. em is used as a pronoun serving as both subject and object ('he' and 'him'). The lexical item ol is not only a marker indicating the plural of nouns, but also a pronoun denoting 'they' and 'them'.

[Gender]: Gender distinctions are usually missing: For example, in Tok Pisin em is not only used as a pronoun referring to both subject and object but it also stands for both male and female referents: 'he' / 'him' (subject/object) as well as 'she' / 'her' (subject/object).

[Possession]: The possessive is marked, for example, not by noun inflection but rather by an analytic construction featuring a separate lexical item in the form of ‘X of Y’ (instead of Y’s X).

E.g. Tok Pisin:

Ol opisa bilong Melanesin Envairomen Faundesen
All officer belong Melanesian Environment Foundation
‘The officers of the Melanesian Environment Foundation’

laip bilong famili
life belong family
‘life of families’

hevi bilong helt
heavy belong health
‘difficulties of health’

[Tense]: Verbs are typically not inflected to mark tense. The verb usually stays uninflected and tense is marked externally to the verb by a separate preverbal lexical item. (See also here).

In Tok Pisin bin is used as a past tense marker:

Bung i bin stat long Mande
Meeting he been start along Monday
‘The meeting began on Monday’

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