Complexity, Efficiency, and Language Contact

Pronoun Omission in World Englishes

Iván Tamaredo

• Publisher: Peter Lang Group
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783034339025
• eBook ISBN: 9783034340656
• Edition: 1

The book provides an assessment of the contribution of pronoun omission to the complexity and efficiency of varieties of English and the influence of language contact on its attestation and pervasiveness. On the one hand, omitted pronouns result in simpler and more efficient structures, provided their antecedents are retrievable from the context. On the other hand, the choice between overt and omitted pronouns depends on several grammatical constraints, which in turn may entail an increase in system complexity. Two methodologically different but complementary case studies are presented, which contribute new findings to the literature at the crossroads of research on World Englishes, complexity, efficiency, and pronoun omission.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright information
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Language complexity
• 3 Pronoun omission
• 4 A cross-varietal study of pronoun omission in English
• 5 Complexity variance in English: pronoun omission and language contact
• 6 Concluding remarks and suggestions for further research
• Appendix
• List of figures
• List of tables
• References and sources