Speaking of the past: The development of past time reference in Arabic pidgins

In rudimentary communication with foreigners, the most basic need is to express wishes and to give orders. Accordingly, verbal forms in foreigner-directed speech and pidgins often derive etymologically from imperatives or infinitives in the lexifier language. In more developed communication the need arises to refer to past events. In this paper, the development of past time reference from foreigner-directed speech to pidgin is investigated on the basis of data from Arabic-based pidgins, notably from Pidgin Madam, Gulf Pidgin Arabic, and Juba Arabic. These data are compared with the development of past tense reference in foreigner talk registers and pidgins based on other languages.