Loading...

Complexity, Efficiency, and Language Contact

Pronoun Omission in World Englishes

by Iván Tamaredo (Author)
©2020 Monographs 292 Pages
Series: Linguistic Insights, Volume 270

Summary

The book provides an assessment of the contribution of pronoun omission to the complexity and efficiency of varieties of English and the influence of language contact on its attestation and pervasiveness. On the one hand, omitted pronouns result in simpler and more efficient structures, provided their antecedents are retrievable from the context. On the other hand, the choice between overt and omitted pronouns depends on several grammatical constraints, which in turn may entail an increase in system complexity. Two methodologically different but complementary case studies are presented, which contribute new findings to the literature at the crossroads of research on World Englishes, complexity, efficiency, and pronoun omission.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Acknowledgements
  • Table of Contents
  • List of abbreviations
  • 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 Communicative efficiency and language complexity
  • 1.2 Aims and research questions
  • 1.3 Structure of the book
  • 2 Language complexity
  • 2.1 Historical background
  • 2.2 Sources of complexity variance
  • 2.2.1 Language contact
  • 2.2.2 Acquisition versus use
  • 2.2.3 A typology of contact situations
  • 2.2.4 Additional social determinants of complexity
  • 2.3 Measuring complexity
  • 2.3.1 Kusters (2003, 2008)
  • 2.3.2 Miestamo (2006a, 2008)
  • 2.3.3 Hawkins (1994, 2004, 2009, 2014)
  • 2.3.4 Comparison between the three metrics
  • 2.3.5 Some important distinctions
  • 2.4 Complexity and varieties of English
  • 3 Pronoun omission
  • 3.1 Generative approaches
  • 3.2 Cognitive approaches
  • 3.2.1 Agreement and context
  • 3.2.2 Accessibility theory
  • 3.2.3 Further factors
  • 3.3 Pronoun omission in English
  • 3.3.1 Pronoun omission in the history of British English
  • 3.3.2 Constraints in Present-day English
  • 3.4 The complexity and efficiency of pronoun omission
  • 4 A cross-varietal study of pronoun omission in English
  • 4.1 Simplification and substrate effects
  • 4.2 Data and methodology
  • 4.3 Results
  • 4.3.1 Global indexes: pronoun omission attestation and pervasiveness
  • 4.3.2 Attestation and pervasiveness of individual features
  • 4.4 Simplification and substrate effects revisited
  • 5 Complexity variance in English: pronoun omission and language contact
  • 5.1 Aims and purpose of the study
  • 5.2 Data and methodology
  • 5.2.1 Corpus and data retrieval process
  • 5.2.2 Varieties selected
  • 5.2.3 Variables included in the analysis
  • 5.2.3.1 Language-external constraints
  • 5.2.3.2 Language-internal constraints
  • 5.2.3.3 Interim summary
  • 5.2.4 Statistical analysis
  • 5.2.4.1 Regression modelling and structural complexity
  • 5.2.4.2 Random forests and system complexity
  • 5.3 Frequency of omitted and overt pronouns per variety
  • 5.3.1 Results
  • 5.3.2 Discussion
  • 5.4 Multivariate analysis of the data
  • 5.4.1 Structural complexity
  • 5.4.1.1 Results
  • 5.4.1.2 Discussion
  • 5.4.2 System complexity
  • 5.4.2.1 Results
  • 5.4.2.2 Discussion
  • 5.5 Complexity and contact revisited
  • 6 Concluding remarks and suggestions for further research
  • Appendix
  • List of figures
  • List of tables
  • References and sources
  • Series Page

cover

Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
at ‹
http://dnb.d-nb.de›.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CPI catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

ISSN 0941-4134 ISBN 978-3-631-80147-5 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-81976-0 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-81977-7 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-81978-4 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b16752

 

© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2020

Wabernstrasse 40, CH-3007 Bern, Switzerland

bern@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com

 

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

About the author

Iván Tamaredo holds a PhD in English studies from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). His research interests include varieties of English, probabilistic variation, language processing, and linguistic complexity.

About the book

The book provides an assessment of the contribution of pronoun omission to the complexity and efficiency of varieties of English and the influence of language contact on its attestation and pervasiveness. On the one hand, omitted pronouns result in simpler and more efficient structures, provided their antecedents are retrievable from the context. On the other hand, the choice between overt and omitted pronouns depends on several grammatical constraints, which in turn may entail an increase in system complexity. Two methodologically different but complementary case studies are presented, which contribute new findings to the literature at the crossroads of research on World Englishes, complexity, efficiency, and pronoun omission.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Details

Pages
292
Publication Year
2020
ISBN (PDF)
9783034340656
ISBN (ePUB)
9783034340663
ISBN (MOBI)
9783034340670
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783034339025
DOI
10.3726/b16943
Language
English
Publication date
2020 (March)
Keywords
Structural complexity System complexity Communicative efficiency Language contact Language variation Expression of pronominal elements
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2020. 292 pp., 37 fig. b/w, 53 tables.

Biographical notes

Iván Tamaredo (Author)

Iván Tamaredo holds a PhD in English studies from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). His research interests include varieties of English, probabilistic variation, language processing, and linguistic complexity.

Previous

Title: Complexity, Efficiency, and Language Contact