THE “FEATURE POOL” HYPOTHESIS: THE CASE OF PIDGIN ARABIC
THE “FEATURE POOL” HYPOTHESIS: THE CASE OF PIDGIN ARABIC

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to assess the explanatory power of the ―Feature Pool‖ hypothesis (see e.g. Mufwene 2001, Aboh & Ansaldo 2006, Aboh 2009, Mufwene 2008, 2009, Aboh 2015) and its relevance to accounts of the emergence of pidgin languages. Proponents of the hypothesis at issue contend that the structures of these languages result from a process of competition and selection of features, driven by the following factors: syntax-discourse prominence, markedness/transparency, frequency, salience, and typological similarity. Four Arabic-lexifier pidgins constitute test cases for the evaluation of these claims. The varieties considered are Pidgin Madame, Romanian Pidgin Arabic, Jordanian Pidgin Arabic and Gulf Pidgin Arabic. Developmentally, all these varieties are minimal pidgins/pre-pidgins. It is shown that their structures are not all amenable to admixture/hybridization obtaining from competition and selection of features found in the languages in the contact situation, i.e. Arabic, as the lexifier language, and the various substrate languages. Building up on criticism of the ―Feature Pool‖ hypothesis (McWhorter 2012, Plag 2013, Lefebvre 2015), it is therefore suggested that processes of considerable simplification must have also played a part in the emergence of the structures of Arabic-lexifier pidgins. Evidence in support of this account is adduced from work on the potential role of the Arabic Foreigner Talk register in the emergence of Pidgin Arabic (Avram 2018), the so-called ―Basic Variety‖ stage in adult second language acquisition (Klein & Perdue 1997), and the sociolinguistic correlates of simplicity (Trudgill 2011).

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