Complex systems in aggregated variation analyses

Kretzschmar, W. A. (2014) Complex systems in aggregated variation analyses. In: Szmrecsanyi, B. and Wälchli, B. (eds.) Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register Analysis: Linguistic Variation in Text and Speech. Series: Language and litterae (28). De Gruyter: Berlin, pp. 150-173. ISBN 9783110317558

Abstract

In an influential 1987 paper, Paul Hopper described "emergent grammar" as "always in a process but never arriving." This wonderful phrase suggests that we can conceive of grammar as a rational object, a structure, but one which is never instantiated in the speech that generates it. Subsequently, Hopper became associated with "grammaticalization" (Hopper and Traugott 1993) and is cited regularly in new "usage-based" grammars such as construction grammar (e.g. Bybee 2001, Tomasello 2003, Goldberg 2006, Ellis and Larsen Freeman 2009). It turns out that complex systems, a growing movement in modern sciences such as ecology and genetics, is an excellent fit for "emergent grammar" as Hopper originally described it. Complex systems in language (Kretzschmar 2009) show non-linear frequency distributions of feature variants, possess scaling properties, and above all display emergent order. Unfortunately, usage-based grammars assume that the linguistic structure of a language should be identified with the order that emerges from complex systems, when in fact Hopper was right all along. This paper will consider the current usage-based literature, and show how one might use the non-linear distributions and the scaling property of complex systems to create grammars and typologies that more accurately reflect the emergence that comes from language in use.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kretzschmar, Professor William
• Authors: Kretzschmar, 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: De Gruyter
• ISBN: 9783110317558
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH
• First Published: First published in Aggregating Dialectology, Typology, and Register Analysis: Linguistic Variation in Text and Speech: 150-173
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy