1. Purpose of the Study

Some theoretical ideas about sociolinguistics have already been outlined. By now we should also have had a brief idea of what is Hawaiian Creole English and its position in Hawaiian society through former research. 

This study, instead of applying the theories of the formation of contact languages on Hawaiian Pidgin, focuses on the sociolinguistic aspect of the language. We are particularly interested in three areas of sociolingustic situation in Hawaii concerning HCE, and they are: the people's perception of the language, the function of the language as identify marker and the use of Pidgin in media as it can show whether the language is prevalent or preferred. By handing out questionnaires and carrying out interviews in Hawaii, we aim at finding out the following questions throughout our study: Do most people have a general idea of the language? How often, and under which settings they use the language, and why? In what extend do they think the language mark their identity? How efficient they think is the use of pidgin in advertisement? What is their attitude about the language use in different social contexts? Do they have a general positive or negative negative attitude towards the language? 

This is an attempt of applying, as critically as possible, the theories in sociolinguistics into the real linguistic environment in the island of O’ahu. The data collected in the field was to be evidence to support, modify or even refute the existing theories.