Complexity in language and text

Complexity is a well-established notion in sciences, but, as applied to language or texts, it proves to be rather vague and ambivalent. Does it have to do with structure or content, with quantity or quality? In other words, is it the result of the (excessive) concentration in a text of linguistic or of cognitive components? Or is it due to the intricate intertwining of those components? Again, is complexity a positive or a negative factor in a language system or in a text? In an attempt to give a reliable account of such an abstract notion, there is a tendency to resort to concrete metaphor. Text complexity is viewed and weighed in terms of the difficulty users encounter in processing it. Difficulty is explained retrospectively by tracing back specific (mainly structural) properties in the text, or else it is imputed to the impact of some psychological conditioning. Complexity is presented as a negative factor and is made to co-vary with contextual variables (different users). This book explores different paths. The models that are proposed account for complexity on more objective grounds and independently of processing difficulty. Complexity is defined as the consequence of marked linguistic and textual choices interplaying in the text, and is described and modelled with recourse to semiotic categories. In this view, the emergence of complexity, which is not subject to contextual variables, is always motivated and can be explained and predicted. What is more, it escapes sanctions and may even recover a positive value, of the kind we assign to whatever is rich, intriguing and attractive.