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Language Complexity in Historical Perspective: The Enduring Tropes of Natural Growth and Abnormal Contact ...
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Abstract:
Focusing on the work of John McWhorter and, to a lesser extent, Peter Trudgill, this paper critically examines some common themes in language complexity research from the perspective of intellectual history. The present-day conception that increase in language complexity is somehow a “natural” process which is disturbed under the “abnormal” circumstances of language contact is shown to be a recapitulation of essentially Romantic ideas that go back to the beginnings of disciplinary linguistics. A similar genealogy is demonstrated for the related notion that grammatical complexity is a kind of “ornament” on language, surplus to the needs of “basic communication.” The paper closes by examining the implications of these ideas for linguistic scholarship. ...
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URL: https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:40883/ https://dx.doi.org/10.17613/bhje-j132
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 7: Interview with Clara Stockigt on missionary grammars in Australia ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 13: Interview with John Joseph on Saussure ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 10: Neogrammarian critics – Hugo Schuchardt and Karl Vossler ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 5: Comparativism in the mid-19th century – August Schleicher and materialism ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 12: Language as a system – Ferdinand de Saussure ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 8: Language as an institution – William Dwight Whitney ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 11: Interview with Floris Solleveld on disciplinary linguistics in the 19th century ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 2: Comparative-historical linguistics – Bopp and Grimm ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 3: Language classification ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 7: Interview with Clara Stockigt on missionary grammars in Australia ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 8: Language as an institution – William Dwight Whitney ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 11: Interview with Floris Solleveld on disciplinary linguistics in the 19th century ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 2: Comparative-historical linguistics – Bopp and Grimm ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 5: Comparativism in the mid-19th century – August Schleicher and materialism ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 11: Interview with Floris Solleveld on disciplinary linguistics in the 19th century ...
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Hiphilangsci podcast episode 12: Language as a system – Ferdinand de Saussure ...
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