This volume is a selection of 15 papers from approximately 125 papers presented at three consecutive meetings of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (San Diego in January 1996, Chicago in January 1997, and London in June 1997). The collection represents a good variety of contributions in terms of theoretical concerns and languages discussed. Two of the chapters present a survey of particular phenomena in a number of pidgins and creoles: stativity and time reference (Holm) and wh-words and question formation (Clements & Mahboob). Another chapter revisits the prototypical creole tense-mood-aspect system with an examination of a larger database of Sranan speech than has been previously seen in the literature (Winford). The remainder of the chapters address historical linguistic concerns, discussing issues of Indo-European development (Goyette) as well as creole genesis. The articles on genesis represent an integration of recent developments from outside the creolist world—for example, using insights from Chaos Theory (Lang) and Optimality Theory (Singler) and expanding on previous discussions of nativization (Roberts). Two chapters represent more quantitative approaches from sociolinguistics applied to creole settings (Naro & Scherre; Tagliamonte). There are four articles that address diachronic issues that would potentially address issues of SLA; however, they do not explicitly address their orientation as to how processes of creole genesis are separate from those of SLA.
Optimality Theory and Language Change: The Activation of Potential Constraint Interactions
