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Complexity in language and in law
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Geoffrey Sampson
Published/Copyright:
July 21, 2014
Abstract
Two kinds of objection are made to the claim that some languages are simpler than others. Many linguists have asserted that, as a matter of empirical observation, all languages are roughly equal in complexity, but very little evidence has been cited. A more weighty objection is that the claim is meaningless because the complexity of different languages is incommensurable. It may not be numerically quantifiable; but a comparison with the evolution of legal systems shows that that does not make claims of differential complexity meaningless.
Received: 2013-11-15
Revised: 2014-5-23
Accepted: 2014-5-28
Published Online: 2014-7-21
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Special volume on linguistic complexity: Editor's preface
- Overt and hidden complexity – Two types of complexity and their implications
- Complexity trade-offs do not prove the equal complexity hypothesis
- Complexity in the history of language study
- Complexity in language and in law
- Global optimization and complexity trade-offs
- Network science as a method of measuring language complexity
Articles in the same Issue
- Special volume on linguistic complexity: Editor's preface
- Overt and hidden complexity – Two types of complexity and their implications
- Complexity trade-offs do not prove the equal complexity hypothesis
- Complexity in the history of language study
- Complexity in language and in law
- Global optimization and complexity trade-offs
- Network science as a method of measuring language complexity
