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book: Language Complexity
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Language Complexity

Typology, contact, change
  • Edited by: , and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2008

About this book

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.

Reviews

Peter Trudgill, Fribourg University:
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.

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    Prelim pages

    i
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    Table of contents

    v
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    Introduction: The problem of language complexity

    vii
    Fred Karlsson, Matti Miestamo and Kaius Sinnemäki
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  • I. Typology and theory
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    Complexity in linguistic theory, language learning and language change

    3
    Wouter Kusters
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    Grammatical complexity in cross-linguistic perspective

    23
    Matti Miestamo
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    Complexity trade-offs between the subsystems of language

    43
    Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon and August Fenk
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    Complexity trade-offs in core argument marking

    67
    Kaius Sinnemäki
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    Assessing linguistic complexity

    89
    Patrick Juola
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    How complex are isolating languages?

    109
    David Gil
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    Complexity in isolating languages: Lexical elaboration versus grammatical economy

    133
    Elizabeth M. Riddle
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    Grammatical resources and linguistic complexity: Sirionó as a language without NP coordination

    153
    Östen Dahl
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  • II. Contact and change
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    Why does a language undress? Strange cases in Indonesia

    167
    John H. McWhorter
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    Morphological complexity as a parameter of linguistic typology: Hungarian as a contact language

    191
    Casper de Groot
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    Language complexity and interlinguistic difficulty

    217
    Eva Lindström
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    Complexity in nominal plural allomorphy: A contrastive survey of ten Germanic languages

    243
    Antje Dammel and Sebastian Kürschner
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  • III. Creoles and pidgins
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    The simplicity of creoles in a cross-linguistic perspective

    265
    Mikael Parkvall
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    Complexity in numeral systems with an investigation into pidgins and creoles

    287
    Harald Hammarström
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    Explaining Kabuverdianu nominal plural formation

    305
    Angela Bartens and Niclas Sandström
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    Complexity and simplicity in minimal lexica: The lexicon of Chinook Jargon

    321
    Päivi Juvonen
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    Index of languages

    341
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    Index of authors

    345
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    Index of subjects

    349
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2008
eBook ISBN:
9789027291356
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
356
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This book is in the series
Studies in Language Companion Series
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.94
eBook ISBN: 9789027291356
Keywords for this book
Creole studies; Contact Linguistics; Typology; Theoretical linguistics
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
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