Language complexity as an evolving variable [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil, and Peter Trudgill

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910808476203321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2009
• ISBN: 1-383-04516-X; 1-282-23505-2; 9786612235054; 0-19-156766-3
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (325 p.)
• Collana: Oxford linguistics; Studies in the evolution of language ; ; 13
• Altri autori (Persone): SampsonGeoffrey <1944->; GilDavid; TrudgillPeter
• Disciplina: 401.43
• Soggetti: Complexity (Linguistics)
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [272]-298) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Contents; Preface; Interlinear glosses; The contributors; 1. A linguistic axiom challenged; 2. How much grammar does it take to sail a boat?; 3. On the evolution of complexity: sometimes less is more in East and mainland Southeast Asia; 4. Testing the assumption of complexity invariance: the case of Elfdalian and Swedish; 5. Between simplification and complexification: non-standard varieties of English around the world; 6. Implicational hierarchies and grammatical complexity; 7. Sociolinguistic typology and complexification; 8. Linguistic complexity: a comprehensive definition and survey; 9. Complexity in core argument marking and population size10. Oh n(omitted)! : a bewilderingly multifunctional Saramaccan word teaches us how a creole language develops complexity; 11. Orality versus literacy as a dimension of complexity; 12. Individual differences in processing complex grammatical structures; 13. Origin and maintenance of clausal embedding complexity; 14. Layering of grammar: vestiges of protosyntax in present-day languages; 15. An interview with Dan Everett; 16. Universals in language or cognition? Evidence from English ; language acquisition and from Pirahã; 17. ''Overall complexity'': a wild goose chase?18. An efficiency theory of complexity and related phenomena; 19. Envoi: The editors; References; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This fascinating book challenges the idea that languages are equally complex. Eighteen scholars look at evidence from a wide range of times and places. They consider the links between linguistic structure and change and social complexity. Their conclusions challenge conventional ideas about the nature of language and contemporary theory. - ;This book presents a challenge to the widely-held assumption that human languages are both similar and constant in their degree of complexity. For a hundred years or more the universal equality of languages has been a tenet of faith among most anthropologis