Language complexity.

In this article, recent foreign studies that describe and discuss the parameter of «language complexity» are reviewed. Despite the diversity of approaches and results, three major conclusions that arc supported by a substantial body of research can be named. First, the popular view that all the languages arc equally complcx is wrong. Second, it is possible not only to range languages according to their complexity, but also to try to measure a complexity of a language — or at least of its fragment — quantitatively. Third, such measures, as well as some qualitative studies, show that language complexity depends on social parameters. It is quite convincingly shown and explained that complexity negatively correlates with population size and intensity of contacts with speakers of other languages, and positively correlates with density of social networks.