Language and Media Dictionary of Key Terms (April 2016) Martin Montgomery

persuasion media n. mode of communication purposefully designed to change the attitudes, actions or beliefs of an audience. Closely allied to propaganda and public relations. mmo

pidgin LANG n. synthetic, simplified language of a type that sometimes develops between groups who lack a language in common, in order to facilitate contact between them. Many recorded examples of pidgins involve contact between an invading European colonial or mercantile power, and Indigenous communities. Initially the pidgin serves primarily for contact between the groups for quite specialised purposes such as trade. In these circumstances the pidgin borrows key vocabulary items from the language of the invading power to cover crucial areas of meaning such as number or livestock. This borrowed vocabulary is used with a highly simplified grammar in which word order is fixed, inflections are dropped, fewer prepositions are used, and so on. Pronunciation is likely to owe much to local sound patterns.

However, it is possible for the restricted purposes of the original pidgin to become extended, even after the withdrawal of the colonial power, if the pidgin proves useful for communication between local communities, especially where these communities speak mutually unintelligible languages. In Cameroon on the west coast of Africa there are at least two hundred vernacular languages for a population of less than eight million. Although French and English are maintained as official languages, there also exists an important link language –Cameroon Pidgin English – which is common amongst all sectors of the population, is widely distributed amongst the two hundred ethnic groups and has been spoken in the area for at least 150 years. Under such conditions quite significant developments can take place within the pidgin, increasing its complexity and extending its functions, including its use for written communication. MMO