Complexity in language and in law

• Authors: Geoffrey Sampson
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Two kinds of objection are made to the claim that some languages are simpler than others. Many linguists have asserted that, as a matter of empirical observation, all languages are roughly equal in complexity, but very little evidence has been cited. A more weighty objection is that the claim is meaningless because the complexity of different languages is incommensurable. It may not be numerically quantifiable; but a comparison with the evolution of legal systems shows that that does not make claims of differential complexity meaningless.

Keywords

EN

complexity; law; Common Law; creoles; precedent

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Journal: Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 169-177

Dates

received

2013-11-15

revised

2014-05-23

accepted

2014-05-28

online

2014-07-21

Contributors

author

Geoffrey Sampson

• University of South Africa, South Africa

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/psicl-2014-0012