  It has been argued (by, e.g., Bickerton  1981, and Pinker,  1994:32-9) that the process by which a pidgin turns into a creole  provides direct evidence of the operation of an innate language  faculty. Pidgins are rudimentary communication systems that are  developed when people speaking different languages come together  (often in a commercial setting or when one people has conquered and  is exploiting another) and need to communicate about practical  matters. Creoles arise when pidgins are elaborated both syntactically and semantically, and take on the characteristics of bona  fide natural languages.