Language Complexity
Typology, contact, change
Editors
| University of Helsinki
| University of Helsinki
| University of Helsinki
Language complexity has recently attracted considerable attention from linguists of many different persuasions. This volume – a thematic selection of papers from the conference Approaches to Complexity in Language, held in Helsinki, August 2005 – is the first collection of articles devoted to the topic. The sixteen chapters of the volume approach the notion of language complexity from a variety of perspectives. The papers are divided into three thematic sections that reflect the central themes of the book: Typology and theory, Contact and change, Creoles and pidgins. The book is mainly intended for typologists, historical linguists, contact linguists and creolists, as well as all linguists interested in language complexity in general. As the first collective volume on a very topical theme, the book is expected to be of lasting interest to the linguistic community.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 94] 2008. xiv, 356 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
|
vii–xiv
|
|
|
I. Typology and theory
|
1
|
|
3–22
|
|
|
23–41
|
|
|
43–65
|
|
|
67–88
|
|
|
89–108
|
|
|
109–131
|
|
|
133–151
|
|
|
153–163
|
|
|
II. Contact and change
|
165
|
|
167–190
|
|
|
191–215
|
|
|
217–242
|
|
|
243–262
|
|
|
III. Creoles and pidgins
|
263
|
|
265–285
|
|
|
287–304
|
|
|
305–320
|
|
|
321–340
|
|
|
Index of languages
|
341–344
|
|
Index of authors
|
345–348
|
|
Index of subjects
|
349–356
|
“Language complexity is complex! But these top-class linguistics scholars have made startling and brilliant progress towards untangling the complexity - this book is a giant leap forward.”
Peter Trudgill, Fribourg University
“The collection covers a wide range of languages from practically all parts of the world. Many phyla, areas and types are represented in the 'sample' from which the examples are drawn. The same holds for the situations and constellations in which complexity has to be measured. There are diachronic and synchronic studies, comparative and cross-linguistic investigations alongside studies of individual languages. The contributions are empirically well informed. Moreover, the theoretically-minded reader is not disappointed either as the disputed concept of complexity calls for reflections on theory and methodology which are characteristic of many of the articles. [..]I can strongly recommend this book to every linguist who is interested in questions of typological equivalence of language structures.”
Thomas Stolz, University of Bremen, in STUF 62, 2009
“The collections covers a wide range of languages from practically all parts of the world. Many phyla, areas and types are represented in the 'sample' from which the examples are drawn. The same holds for the situations and constellations in which complexity has to be measured. There are diachronic and synchronic studies, comparative and cross-linguistic investigations alongside studies of individual languages. The contributions are empirically well informed. Moreover, the theoretically-minded reader is not disappointed either as the disputed concept of complexity calls for reflections on theory and methodology which are characteristic of many of the articles. [...] No matter how unclear the notion of complexity is, I strongly recommend this book to every linguist who is interested in questions of typological equivalence of language structures.”
Thomas Stolz, University of Bremen, in STUF 62(3): 241-242, 2009
Cited by
Cited by 40 other publications
No author info given
2009. Publications received in 2008.
Nordic Journal of Linguistics 32:1 ► pp. 183 ff. 
Ackerman, Farrell & Robert Malouf
2016. Word and pattern morphology: An information-theoretic approach.
Word Structure 9:2 ► pp. 125 ff.
Adsett, Connie R. & Yannick Marchand
2010. Syllabic Complexity: A Computational Evaluation of Nine European Languages.
Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 17:4 ► pp. 269 ff.
Appelman, Alyssa & Mike Schmierbach
2018. Make No Mistake? Exploring Cognitive and Perceptual Effects of Grammatical Errors in News Articles.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 95:4 ► pp. 930 ff.
Batic, Gian Claudio
2020.
In West African languages. Linguistic theory and communication,
Becerra-Bonache, Leonor & M. Dolores Jiménez-López
2015.
In Advances in Computational Intelligence [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 9094],
► pp. 3 ff.
Biberauer, Theresa
2019. Some thoughts on the complexity of syntactic complexity
.
Theoretical Linguistics 45:3-4 ► pp. 259 ff.
Braunmüller, Kurt
2013. Morphologische Komplexität des Deutschen im Vergleich mit den skandinavischen Sprachen – typologisch und sprachhistorisch.
Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 135:3
BRUNNER, THOMAS
2014. Structural nativization, typology and complexity: noun phrase structures in British, Kenyan and Singaporean English.
English Language and Linguistics 18:1 ► pp. 23 ff.
De Clercq, Bastien, F. Neveu, G. Bergounioux, M.-H. Côté, J.-M. Fournier, L. Hriba & S. Prévost
2016. Le développement de la complexité syntaxique en français langue seconde : complexité structurelle et diversité.
SHS Web of Conferences 27 ► pp. 07006 ff.
de la Torre García, Nuria, María Cecilia Ainciburu & Kris Buyse
2021. Morphological complexity and rated writing proficiency.
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Denk, Lukas
2021. Argument marking and phonological alignment: an alternative explanation for the retention of morphological complexity in Ket.
SN Social Sciences 1:1
Dressler, Wolfgang U., F. Nihan Ketrez & Marianne Kilani-Schoch
2017.
In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61],
► pp. 287 ff.
Ehret, Katharina
2018. An information-theoretic view on language complexity and register variation: Compressing naturalistic corpus data.
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 0:0
Ehret, Katharina & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
2019. Compressing learner language: An information-theoretic measure of complexity in SLA production data.
Second Language Research 35:1 ► pp. 23 ff.
Good, Jeff
2015. Paradigmatic complexity in pidgins and creoles.
Word Structure 8:2 ► pp. 184 ff.
Hickey, Raymond
2020.
In The Handbook of Language Contact,
► pp. 1 ff.
Housen, Alex & Hannelore Simoens
2016. INTRODUCTION: COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES ON DIFFICULTY AND COMPLEXITY IN L2 ACQUISITION.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition 38:2 ► pp. 163 ff.
Joseph, John E. & Frederick J. Newmeyer
2012. ‘All Languages Are Equally Complex’.
Historiographia Linguistica 39:2-3 ► pp. 341 ff.
Kalezic, Maja
2019.
In The Intricacy of Languages [IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 20],
► pp. 12 ff.
Kouwenberg, Silvia & John Victor Singler
2020.
In Advances in Contact Linguistics [Contact Language Library, 57],
► pp. 108 ff.
Kuiken, Folkert & Ineke Vedder
2019. Syntactic complexity across proficiency and languages: L2 and L1 writing in Dutch, Italian and Spanish.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee
2019.
In World Lexicon of Grammaticalization,
Lavidas, Nikolaos
2018.
In Reorganising Grammatical Variation [Studies in Language Companion Series, 203],
► pp. 175 ff.
Maitz, Péter & Attila Németh
2014. Language Contact and Morphosyntactic Complexity: Evidence from German.
Journal of Germanic Linguistics 26:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Mansouri, Behzad & Hamidreza Moeiniasl
2018.
Frederick J. Newmeyer and Laurel B. Preston , eds. 2014. Measuring Grammatical Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xvi + 370. US $110 (hardcover)..
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 63:1 ► pp. 123 ff.
Marley, Alexandra
2021. “I Speak My Language My Way!”—Young People’s Kunwok.
Languages 6:2 ► pp. 88 ff.
Montemurro, Marcelo A., Damián H. Zanette & Michael Breakspear
2011. Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families.
PLoS ONE 6:5 ► pp. e19875 ff.
Mufwene, Salikoko S.
2013.
In Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society [Understanding Complex Systems, ],
► pp. 197 ff.
Olthof, Marieke
2017. Transparency in Norwegian and Icelandic: Language contact vs. language isolation.
Nordic Journal of Linguistics 40:1 ► pp. 73 ff.
Schembri, Adam, Jordan Fenlon, Kearsy Cormier & Trevor Johnston
2018. Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages.
Frontiers in Psychology 9
Stump, Gregory
2017. The Nature and Dimensions of Complexity in Morphology.
Annual Review of Linguistics 3:1 ► pp. 65 ff.
Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt & Melanie Röthlisberger
2019.
In The Cambridge Handbook of World Englishes,
► pp. 534 ff.
Szymanik, Jakub
2016.
In Quantifiers and Cognition: Logical and Computational Perspectives [Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 96],
► pp. 51 ff.
Tamaredo, Iván
2018. Pronoun omission in high-contact varieties of English.
English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 39:1 ► pp. 85 ff.
Vagias, Ioannis & Elpida Tzafestas
2014.
In Advances in Computational Social Science,
► pp. 205 ff.
Viti, Carlotta
2015.
In Perspectives on Historical Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series, 169],
► pp. 1 ff.
Walkden, George & Anne Breitbarth
2019. Complexity as L2-difficulty: Implications for syntactic change
.
Theoretical Linguistics 45:3-4 ► pp. 183 ff.
Wijers, Martje
2018. The Role of Variation in L2 Syntactic Complexity: A Case Study on Subordinate Clauses in Swedish as a Foreign Language.
Nordic Journal of Linguistics 41:1 ► pp. 75 ff.
Xanthos, Aris, Sabine Laaha, Steven Gillis, Ursula Stephany, Ayhan Aksu-Koç, Anastasia Christofidou, Natalia Gagarina, Gordana Hrzica, F. Nihan Ketrez, Marianne Kilani-Schoch, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Melita Kovacˇevic´, Klaus Laalo, Marijan Palmovic´, Barbara Pfeiler, Maria D. Voeikova & Wolfgang U. Dressler
2011. On the role of morphological richness in the early development of noun and verb inflection.
First Language 31:4 ► pp. 461 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 september 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects & Metadata
BIC Subject: CFF – Historical & comparative linguistics
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General