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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 39:2/3 (2012) ► pp.341–368

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‘All Languages Are Equally Complex’

The rise and fall of a consensus

 | University of Edinburgh
 | University of Washington
Published online: 23 November 2012
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.39.2-3.08jos
Summary
Throughout most of the history of the discipline, linguists have had little hesitation in comparing languages in terms of their relative complexity, whether or not they extrapolated judgements of superiority or inferiority from such comparisons. By the mid 20th century, however, a consensus had arisen that all languages were of equal complexity. This paper documents and explains the rise of this consensus, as well as the reasons that have led to it being challenged in recent years, from various directions, including language diversity, as analysed by Daniel Everett; arguments about Creoles and Creoloids, as put forward by Peter Trudgill, and others; and views from generative linguistics and evolutionary anthropology.
Résumé
Pratiquement tout au long de l’histoire de la discipline, les linguistes n’ont guère eu d’hésitation à comparer les langues en termes de complexité relative, qu’ils aient ou non tiré des jugements de supériorité ou d’infériorité de telles comparaisons. Au milieu du XXe siècle, cependant, un consensus est apparu sur le fait que toutes les langues étaient d’une égale complexité. Cet article documente et explique l’apparition de ce consensus, ainsi que les raisons qui ont conduit à sa remise en cause ces dernières années, de plusieurs côtés : diversité linguistique, telle qu’analysée par Daniel Everett ; arguments sur les créoles et les ‘créolides’, tels qu’avancés par Peter Trugdill et d’autres ; vues émanant de la linguistique générative et de l’anthropologie évolutionniste.
Zusammenfassung
Die Sprachwissenschaftler hatten in der Vergangenheit kaum sonderliche Bedenken, Sprachen hinsichtlich ihrer jeweiligen Komplexität miteinander zu vergleichen, und dies unabhängig von der Tatsache, ob sie daraus Schlüsse auf die jeweilige Überlegenheit bzw. Unterlegenheit zogen. Um die Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts war schließlich eine Art Konsens entstanden, alle Sprachen seien von gleicher Komplexität. Die Entstehung dieser Auffassung wird in diesem Beitrag nachgezeichnet, aber gleichzeitig auch einsichtig gemacht, wie sie in den letzten Jahren erneut infrage gestellt werden konnte, sei es unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Sprachenvielfalt, wie ihn Daniel Everett darlegt, oder aufgrund von Argumenten zu Kreolsprachen, die Peter Trudgill und andere vortragen, und nicht zuletzt angesichts von Gesichtspunkten, welche von der Generativen Linguistik und der Evolutionsanthropologie formuliert werden.
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