Relexification is a term in linguistics used to describe the mechanism of language change by which one language replaces its lexicon with that of another language at a relatively high rate without its grammar being affected similarly, particularly with, but not limited to, pidgins, creoles and mixed languages.^[1]

The language from which the lexicon is derived is called the "lexifier".^[2]

New language formation

Main article: Creole languages

Main article: Mixed languages

Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin, a creole or a mixed language takes the great majority of its lexicon from a superstrate or target language while its grammar either comes from the substrate or source language, or , according to universalist theories, arises from universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation. Michif, Media Lengua and Karipúna are mixed languages which arose through relexification.^[3]

Relexification in creole genesis is highly disputed. The hypothesis that all creole languages derive their grammar from the mediaeval Mediterranean Lingua Franca was widely held at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s before losing its audience. The same is true for the claim that Haitian creole was created when Fon speaking African slaves first relexified their language to French, based on "deep structure" similarities between the two languages. Wittmann (1994), Wittmann & Fournier (1996), Singler (1996), and DeGraff (2002) have shown convincingly that common underlying properties of syntax established in the comparative framework of generative grammar reflect the fundamental unity of the workings of principles and parameters of Universal Grammar, not the workings of relexification processes.

Second language acquisition

Spontaneous second language acquisition (and the genesis of pidgins) involves the gradual relexification of the native language or source language with target language vocabulary. After relexification is completed, native language structures alternate with structures acquired from the target language.^[4]

Conlangs and jargon

In the context of constructed languages, jargons and argots, the term is applied to the process of creating a language by substituting new vocabulary into the grammar of an existing language, often one's native language.^[5]

While this practice is most often associated with novice constructed language designers, it may also be done as an initial stage towards creating a more sophisticated language. A language thus created is known as a relex. For instance, Lojban began as a relex of Loglan, but the languages' grammars have diverged since then.^[6] The same process is at work in the genesis of jargons and argots. Examples of this are:

• Caló is a jargon used by Gitanos (Spanish Gypsies), that mixes a Spanish grammar with Romany vocabulary.

• A literary example of relexification is the comical quasi-Latin used by a character in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:^[7]

Ego credo ut vita pauperum est simpliciter atrox, simpliciter sanguinarius atrox, in Liverpoolio.

I think that the life of the poor is simply atrocious, simply bloody atrocious, in Liverpool.

Middle English

Some scholars argue that Old English was partially relexified by Norman French to produce Middle English.^[8] However, most scholars reserve the word 'relexification' for borrowing on the scale seen in creoles and mixed languages.

References

Bibliography

• Bakker, Peter (1997), A Language of Our Own, New York: Oxford University Press 
• Bickerton, Derek & Odo, Carol (1976), General phonology and pidgin syntax, Change and variation in Hawaiian English, 1, University of Hawaii 
• Brightman, Robert (1995), "Forget Culture: Replacement, Transcendence, Relexification," Cultural Anthropology 10:4.509-546

• Danchev, Andrei (1997), "The Middle English creolization hypothesis revisited", in Fisiak, Jacek, Studies in Middle English linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, pp. 79-108, ISBN 3110152428 
• DeGraff, Michel (2002), "Relexification: A reevaluation", Linguistic Anthropology 44(4): 321-414 
• Joyce, James (1916), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York: The Modern Library 
• Muysken, Pieter (1981), "Halfway between Quechua and Spanish: The case for relexification", in Highfield, Arnold & Valdman, Albert, Historicity and variation in creole studies, Ann Arbor: Karoma, pp. 52-78 
• Singler, John Victor (1996), "Theories of creole genesis, sociohistorical considerations, and the evaluation of evidence: The case of Haitian Creole and the Relexification Hypothesis", Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 11: 185-230 
• Wardhaugh, Ronald (2002), "Pidgins and Creoles", An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (fourth ed.), Blackwell Publishing, pp. 57-86 
• Wittmann, Henri (1989), "Relexification et argogenèse," Communication, 1er Colloque international d’argotologie, Université de Besançon, Oct. 13-1, 1989
• Wittmann, Henri (1994), "Relexification et créologenèse", Proceedings of the International Congress of Linguists (Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval) 15(4): 335-38 
• Wittmann, Henri & Fournier, Robert (1996), "Contraintes sur la relexification: les limites imposées dans un cadre théorique minimaliste", in Fournier, Robert, Mélanges linguistiques'', Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières, pp. 245-80. 

Further reading

• Arends, Jacques, Pieter Muysken & Norval Smith. 1995. Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
• Sebba, Mark. 1997. Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press.
• Speer, Rob & Catherine Havasi (2004), Meeting the Computer Halfway: Language Processing in the Artificial Language Lojban, Massachusetts Institute of Technology[1]