Markedness

Quantum mechanics

Source text

Linguistics

Philosophy

Ecology

Biology

Semiotics

Narrative

Computer science

Conflation

Natural language processing

Type (biology)

Physics

Artificial intelligence

Naturalness

Folia Linguistica

This paper is an extension of previous research aimed at defining and explaining the notion of text complexity. Previous definitions of text complexity in the literature were mainly based on a conflation of this notion with that of processing difficulty, whose motivations were traced back in psychological filtering or, also and especially, in quantitative (rather than qualitative) text complications. The purpose of the present approach is first of all that of using theory-bound, objective, i.e. linguistic criteria capable of rendering text complexity identifiable independently of the contextual variable of text users, and secondly that of overcoming purely quantitative explanations. This paper will try to demonstrate that such results can be achieved by having recourse to a theory of complex systems as established in sciences, integrated in a theory of naturalness/markedness. According to the present theoretical model, complexity emerges as a consequence of marked linguistic and textual choices interplaying in the text and can be described and modelled with recourse to semiotic categories and textual perspectives. Its emergence is always motivated and can be explained and predicted. Markedness has different realizations across text types and accordingly generates different types of complexity. This paper especially concentrates on complexity in descriptive text type (description of stationary scenes as occurring in various genres), but will also touch upon the narrative type to show the general applicability of the model and the varied configurations of markedness and complexity across text types.

A model for defining complexity in descriptive text type