Assessing linguistic complexity
Assessing linguistic complexity
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评估语言复杂性
DOI：
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发表时间：
2008
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通讯作者：
P. Juola
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作者：
P. Juola
“语言复杂性”的问题是有趣的和富有成果的。不幸的是，“复杂性”的直观含义不适合形式分析。本文讨论了一些拟议的定义，并显示了如何复杂性可以在各种框架进行评估。结果表明，正如预期的那样，所有语言都是同样“复杂”的，但进一步说，语言可以而且确实在它们的形态和句法复杂性上存在可靠的差异，沿着一个直观的连续体。我不仅关注复杂性的数学方面，也关注心理方面。任何关于“复杂性”的主张都是关于过程的，包括对潜在认知机制的隐含描述。通过比较不同的测量方法，人们可以更好地理解人类语言处理，同样，理解心理语言学可以推动更好的测量方法。
The question of “linguistic complexity” is interesting and fruitful. Unfortunately, the intuitive meaning of “complexity” is not amenable to formal analysis. This paper discusses some proposed definitions and shows how complexity can be assessed in various frameworks. The results show that, as expected, languages are all about equally “complex,” but further that languages can and do differ reliably in their morphological and syntactic complexities along an intuitive continuum. I focus not only on the mathematical aspects of complexity, but on the psychological ones as well. Any claim about “complexity” is inherently about process, including an implicit description of the underlying cognitive machinery. By comparing different measures, one may better understand human language processing and similarly, understanding psycholinguistics may drive better measures.