The Economy Principle in Language：语言的经济原则.pdf

Alessandra Vicentini - Universit‡ di Milano The Economy Principle in Language Notes and Observations from Early Modern English Grammars [Ö] and whatever tongue hath less Grammar than the English, is not intelligible, and whatever Tongue hath more, is superfluous. (John Collyer, 1735, 114) viceale@tin.it 1. INTRODUCTION The concept of economy in linguistics can have lots of different values and meanings and can be considered and studied from many and diverse view- points. In order to determine its several readings, a lexical and etymological definition has been attached to the word ëeconomyí, which reveals a positive interpretation as a whole: ëeconomyí means gain, thrift, less burden, saving; it is defined as the rule for the good administration of a house, derived as it is from the Greek oikÚs, which means ëhouseí, and from nomÚs, from nÈmein, which means ëto deliver, to distributeí. This notion concerning the good man- agement of the resources in a house can be metaphorically transferred from a social to a linguistic level; in this sense, language as a whole shows a proper balance resulting from the right distribution of all internal and external forces that custom, linguistic change, contacts with different realities and other vari- ous elements import constantly, causing alterations and irregularities to the detriment of communication. Therefore, economy in language has a strong controlling function over the whole system, something which is carried out with the least possible cost in terms of energy. Mots P