The author justifies the title of this chapter by offering a general approach to the perspective
of complexity and introducing the wide range of language used in connection with …

The paradigmatic revolutions in 20th-century demand that we reflect on our own paradigms
in the light of the great changes in the other disciplines. The elements must not be …

This chapter outlines current perspectives on language conceived of as a 'Complex
Adaptive System'. A complex system is composed of diverse and autonomous parts that are …

Like an increasing number of linguists and other scholars especially interested in the
evolution and/or the ontogenetic development of language, the author claims that languages …

This book introduces and develops the potential of complex systems as a metaphor or supra-
theory for systems in applied linguistics. Change and heterogeneity are central to complex …

This overview paper is an attempt to provide a brief background and introduction to complex
systems theory in applied linguistics as well as a review of the more recent work being done …

Abstract As the sociologist Norbert Elias pointed out, there is a need of new procedural
models to get to grasp the complex functioning of human-beings-in-society. An ecological …

An understanding of language as a complex system helps us to think differently about
linguistics, and helps us to address the impact of linguistic interaction. This book …

The present paper examines natural language as a dynamical system. The oft-expressed
view of language as “a static system of symbols” is here seen as an element of a larger …

The book provides an introduction to some basic concepts of linguistic synergetics, viewed
here as a new multidisciplinary research approach to language studies. It also advances …