Everything about Relexification totally explained
Relexification is a term in
linguistics used in
pidgin,
creole and
mixed language studies for the mechanism by which one language replaces its
lexicon with that from another language at a relatively high rate. For example, the high rate of French-origin words in English is the result of a relexification process.
New language formation
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.
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., and 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.
Conlangs and jargon
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. For instance,
Lojban began as a relex of
Loglan, but the languages' grammars have diverged since then.
The same process is at work in the genesis of
jargons and
argots. Examples of this are:
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:
» :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.
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Relexification'.
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