Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity: Why Do Languages Undress?

McWhorter, John H.

ISBN 10: 1934078379 / ISBN 13: 9781934078372

Published by De Gruyter Mouton, 2011

About this Item

2011. Hardcover. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781934078372

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity: Why Do Languages Undress?
• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1934078379
• ISBN 13: 9781934078372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In John McWhorter’s Defining Creole anthology of 2005, his collected articles conveyed the following theme: His hypothesis that creole languages are definable not just in the sociohistorical sense, but in the grammatical sense. His publications since the 1990s have argued that all languages of the world that lack a certain three traits together are creoles (i.e. born as pidgins a few hundred years ago and fleshed out into real languages). He also argued that in light of their pidgin birth, such languages are less grammatically complex than others, as the result of their recent birth as pidgins. These two claims have been highly controversial among creolists as well as other linguists.

In this volume, Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity, McWhorter gathers articles he has written since then, in the wake of responses from a wide range of creolists and linguists. These articles represent a considerable divergence in direction from his earlier work.

About the Author

John H. McWhorter, New York, USA