Description
Book SynopsisFollowing Kretzschmar's foundational study The Linguistics of Speech, this book demonstrates how the science of complex systems changes every area of linguistics: how to make a grammar, how to think about the history of language, how language works in the brain, and how it works in social settings.
Trade Review'In Language and Complex Systems, William Kretzschmar brings complexity theory to linguistics. Clear and compelling, the book offers a fresh perspective on the way that orderliness arises in language.' Edwin Battistella, Southern Oregon University
'This book is the most powerful account of linguistic variation I have seen. It will change the way all kinds of linguists - from socio to generative - perceive language.' Dr Laura Wright, University of Cambridge
'Even for readers familiar with The Linguistics of Speech and Kretzschmar's other work, Language and Complex Systems is an important synthesis and will be worth reading and thinking about again and again.' Edwin Battistella, Language and Dialogue
Table of Contents1. Language and complex systems; 2. Linguistics, science, the humanities, and complex systems; 3. Usage-based linguistics and complex systems; 4. Grammar and complex systems; 5. Complex systems and the history of the English language; 6. Neural networks and complex systems; 7. Sociolinguistics, communities, and complex systems; 8. Postmodernism and complex systems.
