Anthony R. Davis

Bickerton (1984a) is a recent exposition of the language bioprogram hypothesis (henceforth LBH), which seeks to account for similarities in Creole grammars in "the structure of a species-specific program for language" that is relatively unaffected by input from pre-existing languages. The validity of this claim depends on both the circumstances of creole origins and the nature of the putative similarities, and on both counts the LBH has been attacked. My purpose here is to examine these two issues and to suggest briefly some areas in which the LBH might be tested or expanded.