Complexity trade-offs between the subsystems of language

Abstract

Starting from a view on language as a combinatorial and hierarchically organized system we assumed that a high syllable complexity favours a high number of syllable types, which in turn favours a high number of monosyllables. Relevant crosslinguistic correlations based on Menzerath's (1954) data on monosyllables in 8 languages turned out to be statistically significant. A further attempt was made to conceptualise "semantic complexity" and to relate it to complexity in phonology, word formation, and word order. In English, for instance, the tendency to phonological complexity and monosyllabism is associated with a tendency to homonymy and polysemy, to rigid word order and idiomatic speech. The results are explained by complexity trade-offs rather between than within the subsystems of language. 1 1. Hierarchy and complexity in the language system In his famous article on "The Architecture of Complexity: Hierarchic Systems", Herbert A. Simon (1996; originally 1962) called the attention of systems theory to hierarchy as a central scheme of organized complex systems: Thus my central theme is that complexity frequently takes the form of hierarchy and that hierarchic systems have some common properties independent of their specific content. Hierarchy, I shall argue, is one of the central structural schemes that the architect of complexity uses.

Complexity trade-offs do not prove the equal complexity hypothesis

“…Using a different method and different material based on Menzerath's (1954) description of eight Indo-European languages (Catalan, Croatian, English, German, Italian Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish) we found significant positive correlations between the number of monosyllables, syllable complexity, and the number of syllable types (Fenk-Oczlon and Fenk 2008). A correlation between monosyllables and phonemic inventory size turned out to be almost significant.…”

“…Furthermore, Glaudert takes our complexity trade-offs as evidence for the equal complexity hypothesis: "First of all, I shall argue, following Fenk-Oczlon and Fenk (2008), that the subsystems of any language are governed by complexity trade-offs, which leads us to postulate that all languages are, roughly speaking, equally complex." (Glaudert 2009: 160).…”

LEXIN: A lexical database from Spanish kindergarten and first-grade readers

“…Less than 10% of the words have 4 letters or less, and only 2.7% have 3 letters or less, unlike other languages, like English, with shorter words and a greater number of monosyllables (Fenk-Oczlon & Fenk, 2008).…”

Miten yksi keho muuttui moneksi

“…Monimutkaisuutta voidaan havaita kovin monilla eri tasoilla kuten akateemisten tekstien tiivistyneessä ilmaisumuodossa (Biber & Gray 2016). Monet kirjoittajat vaikuttavat lähestyvän aihetta yhdestä näkökulmasta kuten siitä, montako tavua sanassa voi olla (Fenk-Ozlon & Fenk 2008). Paljon suosiota on kyllä saanut näkemys kielestä kompleksisena adaptiivisenä järjestelmänä (Mufwene 2017), joka on lanseerattu myös historialliseen kognitiiviseen kielitieteeseen (Frank & Gontier 2010).…”