Relexification

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For the company called Relex, see Relex Incorporated.

Relexification is a term from linguistics used in pidgin and creole studies for the mechanism by which one language changes its lexicon to that of another language.

1 Relexification in pidgin formation
2 In constructed language studies
3 Examples
4 References
5 See also

[edit] Relexification in pidgin formation

Main article: Creole languages

Relexification is a form of language interference in which a pidgin or creole language takes the great majority of its lexicon from the coloniser's language, for instance English or Portuguese, while its grammar comes either from an indigenous language, or (according to universalist theories), arises from universal principles of simplification and grammaticalisation. A third possibility, that all creole languages derive their grammar from the mediaeval European lingua franca is not now widely held.

[edit] In constructed language studies

In the context of constructed languages, 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. 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.

[edit] Examples

Caló is a jargon used by Gitanos (Spanish Gipsies), 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 (p. 245):

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.

[edit] References

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. New York, The Modern Library, 1928.
Arends, Jacques, Pieter Muysken, and Norval Smith. Pidgins and Creoles: an introduction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1995.
Sebba, Mark. Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: Macmillan Press LTD, 1997.