Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information Language and Complex Systems An understanding of language as a complex system helps us to think differently about linguistics, and helps us to address the impact of linguistic interaction. 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. Kretzschmar argues that to construct the best grammars of languages, it is necessary to understand the complex system of speech. Each chapter makes specific recommendations for how linguists should manage empirical data in order to form better generalizations about a language and its varieties. The book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in linguistics and English language, especially the study of language variation and the historical development of English. william a. kretzschmar, jr. teaches English as Harry and Jane Will- son Professor in Humanities at the University of Georgia. He also has appointments at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and the University of Oulu in Finland. His recent publications include The Linguistics of Speech (Cambridge, 2009). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107100459 C William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-107-10045-9 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? The Second Coming (1920), William Butler Yeats © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information Contents List of figures page ix List of tables xiii Acknowledgements xiv Introduction 1 1 Language and complex systems 5 Examples of complex systems 7 Principles of complex systems 11 Language as a complex system 19 2 Linguistics, science, the humanities, and complex systems 36 Linguistics as a science 36 The epistemology of modern science: Wilson and Gould 38 An alternative to reductionism 44 The social history of modern science among the disciplines 47 The humanities as modern science? 52 3 Usage-based linguistics and complex systems 56 Paul Hopper (1987) 57 Paul Hopper and Elizabeth Traugott (1993) 59 Joan Bybee (2001) 61 Janet Pierrehumbert (2001) 64 Adele Goldberg (2006) 68 Michael Tomasello (2003) 70 Nick Ellis and Diane Larsen-Freeman (2009) 73 Joan Bybee (2010) 76 Usage-based linguistics and complex systems 78 4 Grammar and complex systems 81 Zipf’s Law and the 80/20 Rule 83 English grammar 86 Complexity science and grammar 93 Improved grammars 96 5 Complex systems and the history of the English language 105 Clockwork 106 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information viii Contents Grammaticalization 109 A-curve frequency profiles 112 Punctuated equilibrium in language change 121 6 Neural networks and complex systems 131 Models in cognitive science 134 Neural network simulations 138 Self-Organizing Maps 141 Making word choices 150 7 Sociolinguistics, communities, and complex systems 155 Classic North American sociolinguistics 155 Speech communities and populations of speakers 164 New varieties 167 An experiment on scale-free communities 170 Measurement of scale-free data 180 Complex systems for sociolinguists 192 8 Postmodernism and complex systems 201 Fashionable nonsense 202 Postmodernism and speech 207 Last words 212 References 214 Index 224 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information Figures 1.1 Ants in a line. “Ant Trail.” Author: Reyham Soenasto, www.myfolio.com (C Reyham Soenasto; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License) page 8 1.2 A board showing “gliders” (five cell combinations that begin in the middle and move to the lower right) from Conway’s Game of Life (Gosper Glider Gun.YouTube video by nbidyanta. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvUiA-Q-3hM) 10 1.3 Koch island, at different scales (adapted from Mandelbrot 1982) 12 1.4 Whirlpool as self-organization. “Whirlpool in the ‘Water Garden’ within Alnwick Garden.” Author: Christine Westerback, geograph.org.uk (C Christine Westerback; licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License) 13 1.5 Eddies and bubbles in the Regnitz 14 1.6 Leicester locality ca. 1086 (adapted from Russell 1972) 15 1.7 Barcelona region ca. 1360 (adapted from Russell 1972) 16 1.8 “Chaotic” fractal: San Marco Dragon (adapted from Mandelbrot 1982) 17 1.9 Basic dynamics. From Guastello, S., and L. Liebovitch, “Introduction to Nonlinear Dynamics and Complexity,” in Guastello, Stephen, Matthijs Koopmans, and David Pincus, eds., Chaos and Complexity in Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). Used by permission 18 1.10 The distributional pattern: “Zipf’s Law,” “power law,” asymptotic hyperbolic curve of ranked frequencies, aka “A-curve” (cited from www.nngroup.com/articles/zipf-curves- and-website-popularity) 28 1.11 A-curve, dry spell variants 28 1.12 A-curve, parlor variants 29 1.13 A-curve for fog vowel realizations 29 1.14 A-curve for six vowel realizations 30 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10045-9 - Language and Complex Systems William A. Kretzschmar, Jr. Frontmatter More information x List of figures 1.15 Scaling property of A-curve: bureau variants for all, SC/GA/FL, NY, women 30 1.16 Scaling property of A-curve: fog variants for women 31 1.17 Scaling property of A-curve: fog variants for Type II speakers 32 1.18 Perceptual aid from the A-curve 33 2.1 Edward O. Wilson (photo by Beth Maynor Young, from National Park Service www.nps.gov/aboutus/nrawards-2010.htm) 39 2.2 Stephen Jay Gould (photo by Kathy Chapman Online, from Wikipedia under Creative Commons 3.0 license) 39 3.1 Distribution of UGA /u/ realizations 63 3.2 Pierrehumbert decision model. From “Exemplar Dynamics: Word Frequency, Lenition and Contrast,” in J. Bybee and P. Hopper, eds., Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001). Reprinted with kind permission from John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia (www.benjamins.com) 65 3.3 VL and VOL construction frequencies (adapted from Ellis and Larsen-Freeman 2009b) 75 4.1 Zipf’s Law (adapted from PlanetMath, http://planetmath.org/ zipfslaw) 84 4.2 The 80/20 Rule 85 4.3 Stubbs, top twenty collocates of undergo (adapted from Stubbs 2001) 94 4.4 Differential frequencies of relativizers in the Longman Grammar. Adapted from figures 8.14–8.17 in Biber, Douglas, Susan Conrad, and Geoffrey Leech, Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English (London: Longman, 2002) 102 4.5 Differential frequencies of various constructions in the Longman Grammar.