Lenneberg found that in cases where the left hemisphere was removed or damaged before the teenage years, language functions could still be transferred to the right hemisphere. Adults do not seem to be able to transfer their language functions completely after hemispherectomies. This finding favors the critical period hypothesis . This attribute is intended to divide first from second languages, on the assumption that the latter tend not to be used as markers of social identity or in an affective function. It is a property of grammatical languages , such as pidgins.
Pidgins have the properties of both lexical impoverishment and analytic structure.
Ideophones are one way of expanding the lexicon of a pidgin. This scale ordered the features from least acrolectal to most acrolectal, and scaled the idiolects of the speakers into those which were most acrolectal, and those least acrolectal. The results are used as a means of checking data against various predictions. They occur even in the most formal styles of a large number of speakers. Somewhat like Chomsky's deep vs. surface structure.