Cited by 405Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic VariationLanguage Development and DisordersHistorical Linguistics and Language Studies

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Cross-Linguistic Variation and Efficiency

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Hawkins, John A.·2014

Abstract

This book argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these comes from languages permitting structural choices from which selections are made in performance, e.g. between competing word orders and between relative clauses with a resumptive pronoun versus a gap. The preferences and patterns of performance within languages are reflected in the fixed conventions and variation patterns across grammars, leading to a ‘‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis.’’ The general theory that is laid out in Hawkins’s Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars (OUP) is extended and updated. New areas of grammar and of performance are discussed, new research findings are incorporated that test Hawkins’s earlier predictions, and new advances in the contributing fields of language processing, linguistic theory, historical linguistics, and typology are addressed. This efficiency approach to variation has far-reaching theoretical consequences of relevance for many current issues in the language sciences. These include the notion of ease of processing and how to measure it, the role of processing in language change, the nature of language universals and their explanation, the theory of complexity, the relative strength of competing and cooperating principles, and the proper definition of fundamental grammatical notions such as ‘dependency.’ The book also gives a new typology of VO and OV languages and their correlating properties seen from this perspective, and a new typology of the noun phrase and of argument structure.

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Metadata

Authors
Hawkins, J. A.
Affiliations
University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Hawkins, John A.
Published
2014-02-27
OpenAlex
W1495315120
Cited by
405
References
171
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 58 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 58 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 31
FWCI
22.66
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
Keywords
cross-linguistic variation, language efficiency, word order variation, relative clauses, resumptive pronouns, language processing, language change, language universals, grammatical complexity, dependency, argument structure, linguistic typology

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