1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451828703321

Autore

Dahl Òˆsten

Titolo

The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam/Philadelphia, : John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004

ISBN

90-272-9525-5

1-282-25440-5

9786612254406

1-4237-6136-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (343 p.)

Collana

Studies in Language Companion Series ; ; v.71

Disciplina

401/.43

Soggetti

Complexity (Linguistics)

Language and languages

Linguistics

Languages & Literatures

Philology & Linguistics

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity; Editorial page; Title page; LCC page; Table of Contents; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Information and redundancy; 3. Complexity, order, and structure; 4. Languages as non-genetically inherited systems; 5. Aspects of linguistic knowledge; 6. Maturation processes; 7. Grammatical maturation; 8. Pattern adaptation; 9. Featurization; 10. Incorporating patterns; 11. Stability and change; 12. Final discussion; Appendix A; References; List of abbrevations used in glosses; Language index; Author index; Subject index

Sommario/riassunto

This book studies linguistic complexity and the processes by which it arises and is maintained, focusing not so much on what one can say in a language as how it is said. Complexity is not seen as synonymous with "difficulty" but as an objective property of a system - a measure of the amount of information needed to describe or reconstruct it.



Grammatical complexity is the result of historical processes often subsumed under the rubric of grammaticalization and involves what can be called mature linguistic phenomena, that is, features that take time to develop. The nature and characteristics of