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
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vii–xiv
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I. Typology and theory
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1
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3–22
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23–41
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43–65
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67–88
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89–108
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109–131
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133–151
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153–163
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II. Contact and change
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165
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167–190
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191–215
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217–242
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243–262
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III. Creoles and pidgins
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263
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265–285
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287–304
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305–320
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321–340
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Index of languages
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341–344
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Index of authors
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345–348
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Index of subjects
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349–356
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“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 38 other publications
No author info given
2009. Publications received in 2008.
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Adsett, Connie R. & Yannick Marchand
2010. Syllabic Complexity: A Computational Evaluation of Nine European Languages.
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BRUNNER, THOMAS
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De Clercq, Bastien, F. Neveu, G. Bergounioux, M.-H. Côté, J.-M. Fournier, L. Hriba & S. Prévost
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2017.
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Ehret, Katharina
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Ehret, Katharina & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi
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Good, Jeff
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2020.
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2019.
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► pp. 12 ff.
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2020.
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► 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
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In World Lexicon of Grammaticalization,
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2018.
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Maitz, Péter & Attila Németh
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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.
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2013.
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Olthof, Marieke
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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
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Szymanik, Jakub
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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.
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2014.
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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 14 june 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
BIC Subject: CFF – Historical & comparative linguistics
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General