Abstract

In the present paper, we discuss Tok Pisin – a language used in the region of the Pacific – from the perspective of contact linguistics. Firstly, we provide a linguistic characterisation of Tok Pisin. Then, we look at the division between pidgins/Creoles and bilingual mixed languages. Bilingual mixed languages, though they seem to be similar to pidgins/Creoles, differ quite significantly from them. In this paper, we try to define these differences between the two types of languages drawing on Tok Pisin as an example of pidgins/Creoles.