Vol. 59 No. 1 (2021)
Articles

Economy and Explicitness. Easiness and Faithfulness. Bequemlichkeit and Deutlichkeit. Do these terms mean the same ?

Paolo Ramat
IUS, Pavia

Published 2021-07-29

Keywords

  • maturation,
  • explicit- vs. economy-grammar,
  • analyticity vs. syntheticity,
  • transparency,
  • iconicity,
  • efficiency,
  • complexity
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to confront dichotomic terms that have been used in order to describe and understand the forces operating in language. It will be shown that they are not equivalent and, on the contrary, refer to different approaches to language. Consequently, a different approach is suggested that goes beyond the dichotomies underlying traditional linguistic types.