I am
reading the dazzling book “through the language glass” by Guy Deutscher. The
author states that, although it is possible to compare different languages on
the base of the number of phonemes, the complexity of grammar and syntax, and
the richness of the vocabulary, it is not possible to measure an overall index of language complexity,
because it is not possible to compare, for instance, phonemes and syntax. It is
not possible to compare phonemes and syntax, but the enthropy of phonemes and
the enthropy of syntax can be compared. In ecology this is currently done: the
number of a species in a habitat and the number of habitats in a region are
very different things, but it is possible to calculate the enthropy of the
former (alfa-diversity) and the latter (beta-diversity) and to sum these
enthropy to obtain an overall measure of diversity of the landscape. Perhaps it
is possible to sum the enthropy of phonemes, grammar, syntax and vocabulary and
obtain a global measure of complexity.
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