A detailed analysis of an Italian-American woman's speech is presented, and her interlanguage patterns are discussed in relation to a pidginization hypothesis. Data are presented on the following speech characteristics of the woman: free speech negatives, interrogatives, and present and past tense constructions. Her language is shown to be fossilized and also pidginized in the sense that is represents secondary hybridization. It is maintained that secondary hybridization (the interlanguage resulting from communication between second language learners and target language speakers) is legitimate pidginization. The impact that social and psychological factors played in the woman's speech when she first came to America and during the last 15 to 20 years is analyzed. (SW)