Linguistic complexity is one of the currently most hotly debated notions in linguistics. The essays in this volume address the intricacies of assessing the complexity of languages and language varieties (here: of English) in three major linguistic disciplines: creolistics, indigenization and nativization studies, and Second Language Acquisition research. The volume is thus unique in bringing together leading representatives of three often disjunct fields of linguistic scholarship in which linguistic complexity is seen as a dynamic and inherently variable parameter.

Linguistic complexity is one of the currently most hotly debated notions in linguistics. The essays in this volume address the intricacies of assessing the complexity of languages and language varieties (here: of English) in three major linguistic disciplines: creolistics, indigenization and nativization studies, and Second Language Acquisition research. The volume is thus unique in bringing together leading representatives of three often disjunct fields of linguistic scholarship in which linguistic complexity is seen as a dynamic and inherently variable parameter.
Bernd Kortmann and Benedikt Szmrecsanyi, FRIAS, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.

Preface: A closer look
Introduction: Linguistic complexity - Second Language Acquisition, indigenization, contact
Accounting for analyticity in creoles
Nothing will come of nothing
Deletions, antideletions and complexity theory, with special reference to Black South African and Singaporean Englishes
The complexity of the personal and possessive pronoun system of Norf'k
Interlanguage complexity: A construct in search of theoretical renewal
Complexity as a function of iconicity: The case of complement clause constructions in New Englishes
Acquisitional complexity: What defies complete acquisition in Second Language Acquisition
Syntactic and variational complexity in British and Ghanaian English. Relative clause formation in the written parts of the International Corpus of English
Complexity hotspot: The copula in Saramaccan and its implications