[…] a pidgin is both, i.e., it is a reduction of a so-called base language that is at the same time the source language for its native speakers and the target language for the non-native speakers involved.
- Ferguson-DeBose (1977), a pag.100

To the extent that commonly occurring pidginized forms are perceived by the users as a structural whole, with some semblance of stability, they may be referred to as 'pidgins'.
- Ferguson-DeBose (1977), a pag.111

Pidgins are commonly referred to as languages […] although this usage tends to attribute to them a greater degree of autonomy and stability than many observed instances of pidginization actually show.
- Ferguson-DeBose (1977), a pag.111

We have proposed that the initial stage corresponds to the contact situation in which a second language is spreading among speakers of one or more different primary languages, and that given certain preconditions of spread, network, and attitude, the pidginized form may become a pidgin.
- Ferguson-DeBose (1977), a pag.120