Stanwood, Ryo E. (2014). On the adequacy of Hawai`i Creole English. Dallas: SIL International. PDF (open access)
Published version of a previously unpublished PhD thesis (1999).
Low prestige, non-standard speech varieties have been stigmatized by some psychologists and educators as a cognitive handicap responsible for the poor academic performance of minority children. This study investigates whether a particular non-standard variety, Hawai‛i Creole English (HCE), is equal to “real” languages (such as Standard English) in its expressive capacity. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage
(NSM) specification is the only explicit hypothesis about the expressive apparatus underlying all natural languages. It therefore offers us the only empirical means to carry out our investigation. This investigation argues in exhaustive detail that all the primitives and all the primitive combinations of the NSM specification are present in HCE.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
