Language and Complex Systems

Kretzschmar, Jr, W. A. (2015) Language and Complex Systems. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781107100459

Abstract

The realization that speech is a complex system is a new and fundamental fact about language. It is not the frosting on the cake, but provides us with an understanding of the flour out of which the cake is made. The realization that speech is a complex system changes everything for linguists. Yes, we can still make grammars, we can still study usage, history, cognition, and social aspects of language, but now we must do so with a new idea about the empirical basis for the generalizations we want to make. This kind of change has happened in other fields. The idea that earth, air, fire, and water were the basic elements of the natural world had to be replaced with the notion of atoms. The idea that the earth was at the center of the universe had to be replaced with the notion of the sun at the center of our solar system. The assumption of Darwinian gradual evolution has more recently had to be replaced with the notion of punctuated equilibrium. It is no overstatement to say that linguists now have to make a similar transition. Our paradigm for how to think about language has changed. Our most basic evidence about language has turned out to be different from what we had earlier expected and assumed. This book suggests why we should and how we can face that fact.

• Item Type: Books
• Keywords: Language variation, complex systems.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kretzschmar, Professor William
• Authors: Kretzschmar, Jr, W. A.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISBN: 9781107100459

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