On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory

Markedness is commonly regarded as one of the fundamental organizing principles of human language. However, the reasons for the existence of markedness phenomena continue to be controversial, if not to say obscure. The analysis of discourse corpora from three genetically unrelated languages which is...

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Main Author: Regina Pustet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2009-12-01
Series:Discours
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7683
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author Regina Pustet
author_facet Regina Pustet
author_sort Regina Pustet
collection DOAJ
description Markedness is commonly regarded as one of the fundamental organizing principles of human language. However, the reasons for the existence of markedness phenomena continue to be controversial, if not to say obscure. The analysis of discourse corpora from three genetically unrelated languages which is conducted in this study suggests that at least one of the decisive aspects of markedness, namely, the correlation between frequency and structural complexity, can be understood as a necessary consequence of the general statistical regularities disclosed in Zipf's discourse-based model of language.
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spelling doaj-art-facc6918b08541e1ac1802f7db7ac7222025-01-30T09:52:35ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232009-12-01510.4000/discours.7683On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theoryRegina PustetMarkedness is commonly regarded as one of the fundamental organizing principles of human language. However, the reasons for the existence of markedness phenomena continue to be controversial, if not to say obscure. The analysis of discourse corpora from three genetically unrelated languages which is conducted in this study suggests that at least one of the decisive aspects of markedness, namely, the correlation between frequency and structural complexity, can be understood as a necessary consequence of the general statistical regularities disclosed in Zipf's discourse-based model of language.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7683markednessdiscourse frequencystructural complexity of linguistic itemsZipf's Law
spellingShingle Regina Pustet
On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
Discours
markedness
discourse frequency
structural complexity of linguistic items
Zipf's Law
title On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
title_full On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
title_fullStr On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
title_full_unstemmed On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
title_short On the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
title_sort on the correlation between discourse frequency and structural complexity in markedness theory
topic markedness
discourse frequency
structural complexity of linguistic items
Zipf's Law
url https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7683
work_keys_str_mv AT reginapustet onthecorrelationbetweendiscoursefrequencyandstructuralcomplexityinmarkednesstheory