just have it. Some words are distinguished only by reduplication: "ship", "sheep". There are only two proper prepositions: the genitive preposition (etym. < Eng. belong), which is equivalent to "of", "from" and some uses of "for": e.g. "your key"; "They are from Gordon's". the oblique preposition (etym. < Eng. along), which is used for various other relations (such as locative or dative): e.g. . "We went to the black market". Some phrases are used as prepositions, such as ', "in the middle of". Several of these features derive from the common grammatical norms of Austronesian languages – although usually in a simplified form. Other features, such as word order, are however closer to English. Sentences which have a 3rd person subject often put the word i immediately before the verb. This may or may not be written separate from the verb, occasionally written as a prefix. Although the word is thought to be derived from "he" or "is", it is not itself a pronoun or a verb but a grammatical marker used in particular constructions, e.g., is "car forbidden here", i.e., "no parking". Tense and aspect Past tense: marked by (< Eng. been): Tok Pisin: English: "And the prime minister spoke thus." (Romaine 1991: 629) Continuative same tense is expressed through: verb + . Tok Pisin: . English: "He/She is sleeping." (ibid.: 631) Completive or perfective aspect expressed through the word (< Eng. finish): Tok Pisin: English: "He had got out of the boat." (Mühlhäusler 1984: 462) Transitive words are expressed through (< Eng. him): Tok Pisin: English: "Finish your story now!" (ibid.: 640) Future is expressed through the word "" (< Eng. by and by): Tok Pisin: English: "They will go to their rooms now." (Mühlhäusler 1991: 642) Development of Tok Pisin Tok Pisin is a language that developed out of regional dialects of the languages of the local inhabitants and English, brought into the country when English speakers arrived. There were four phases in the development of Tok Pisin that were laid out by Loreto Todd. Casual contact between English speakers and local people developed a marginal pidgin. Pidgin English was used between the local people. The language expanded from the users' mother tongue. As the interracial contact increased, the vocabulary expanded according to the dominant language. In areas where English was the official language, a depidginization occurred (Todd, 1990). Tok Pisin is also known as a "mixed"