Derek Bickerton (born March 25, 1926) is a linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Based on his work in creole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into the development of language both by individuals and as a feature of the human species. He is the originator and main proponent of the language bioprogram hypothesis according to which the similarity of creoles is due to their being formed from a prior pidgin by children who all share a universal human innate grammar capacity.[1]
Bickerton also wrote several novels. He is the father of contemporary artist Ashley Bickerton.
A graduate of the University of Cambridge, England in 1949, Derek Bickerton entered academic life in the 1960s, first as a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and then, after a year's postgraduate work in linguistics at the University of Leeds, as Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Guyana (1967-71). For twenty-four years he was a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii, having meanwhile received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Cambridge (1976).
To answer question about creole formation, in the late 1970s Bickerton proposed an experiment that involves marooning on an island six couples speaking six different languages, along with children too young to have acquired their parents’ languages. The NSF deemed the proposed experiment unethical and refused to fund it.[1]
In his book Roots of Language (1981), Bickerton speculates on a theory to answer three questions:
- How did creole languages originate?
- How do children acquire language?
- How did the language faculty originate as a feature of the human species?
In Language and Species (1990), he suggests that all three questions might be answered by postulating that the origin of language can be traced to the evolution of representation systems and symbolic thinking, together with a later development of formal syntax. Using primitive communication faculties, which then evolved in parallel, mental models became shared representations subject to cultural evolution. In Lingua ex Machina (2000) he and William Calvin revise this speculative theory by considering the biological foundations of symbolic representation and their influence on the evolution of the brain.
In his memoir Bastard Tongues (2008), he describes himself as a "street linguist" who emphasizes field work, with a "total lack of respect for the respectable"[1], and he outlines his theories for a general audience.
Bibliography
- Tropicana, A Novel., 1963
- Dynamics Of A Creole System, 1975
- Bickerton, Derek (1981). Roots of Language. Karoma Publishers. ISBN 0-89720-044-6.
- Bickerton, Derek, (1984). The language bioprogram hypothesis, in: Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 173-221.
- Bickerton, Derek (1990). Language and Species. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-04610-9.
- Language and Human Behavior, 1995
- Lingua ex Machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the Human Brain, 2000 (co-author with William H. Calvin)
- Bickerton, Derek (2008). Bastard Tongues. Hill and Wang. ISBN 0809028174.
- Bickerton, Derek (2009). Adam's Tongue. Hill and Wang. ISBN 9780809022816.
References
- ^ a b c Erard, Michael (2008-03-30). "Walking the Talk". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Erard-t.html?ref=todayspaper.
External links
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