From being the special and the marginal case, pidginization and creolization have become, for some linguists, the test case for any theory of language.
- Traugott (1977), a pag.70

Pidginization and creolization present a formidable challenge to the genetic view of historical linguistics. First and foremost, pidginization and creolization, however defined, involve the development of new languages out of convergent contact situations-the characterization of pidgins and creoles as having the lexicon of one language and the grammar of another, although highly simplified, nevertheless captures an important generalization. Furthermore, except in advanced stages of pidginization and creolization, these languages are unwritten par excellence, developed in limited contexts, such trade, slavery on a plantation and so forth.
- Traugott (1977), a pag.73

[…] pidginization and creolization can be regarded as not different in kind from other processes of language change, but as extreme cases of the hybridization that goes on in language all the time.
- Traugott (1977), a pag.74

Insofar as pidginization represents an extreme case of language mix, whatever processes are involved can be seen as setting limits on the theory of mix. Insofar as creolization represents relatively unhindered experiment with the creation of a new system, the processes involved can be seen to represent the maximum limit on what is possible in language elaboration.
- Traugott (1977), a pag.90