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    Complexity and the age of languages

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Ansaldo, Umberto
    Nordhoff, Sebastian
    Date
    2009
    Type
    Book Chapter
    
    Metadata
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    Source Title
    Complex Processes in New Languages
    DOI
    10.1075/cll.35.21ans
    ISBN
    978-90-272-5257-9
    Faculty
    Faculty of Humanities
    School
    School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85226
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    This paper addresses the issue of complexity in language creation and the time it takes for ‘complex’ structures to emerge in the history of a language. The presence of morphological material is often equated to a certain degree of complexity or is taken to signify a certain time-depth in the history of a language (e.g. Dahl 2004; McWhorter 2005). Though this assumption may be seen as trivial in the absence of a theoretically-based definition of complexity (Muysken 1988), or even misleading (Aboh and Ansaldo 2007; Farquharson 2007), we here put it to a test by looking at morphology in a relatively ‘young’ language, namely Sri Lanka Malay (SLM). SLM is a mixed language which shows considerably more morphological material and other signs of old age than ‘prototypical’ creoles. We explain this by arguing (a) that structural output in language genesis is closely motivated by the typology of the input languages and (b) that our understanding of rate of change needs to be revised to take into account ecological matters.

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