abstractThe likelihood with which language users insert optional words or morphemes that explicitly mark syntactic structure tends to increase in complex grammatical environments. This positive correlation between explicitness and complexity, best known as the Complexity Principle, has been observed for a multitude of case studies in both naturally occurring language and experimental settings. Researchers have sought the explanation for this Complexity Principle in three different domains: cognitive comprehension processing, the language channel, and cognitive production processing. Based on these accounts, we formulate predictions regarding the action radius of the Complexity Principle in the alternation between a direct and prepositional object of the Dutch verb zoeken ‘search’. These predictions are tested against corpus observations. Our results confirm accounts according to which optional elements indicate production difficulties, as well as those that explain the Principle as a result of restrictions on the language channel. In addition, our results indicate that the Principle is sensitive to context-determined restrictions that are the result of its underlying cause. This may present a possible caveat for alternation studies.

中文翻译：

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比较复杂性原则的解释：论证实现的证据

摘要在复杂的语法环境中，语言用户插入显式标记句法结构的可选词或词素的可能性趋于增加。在自然发生的语言和实验环境中的大量案例研究中都观察到了明确性和复杂性之间的这种正相关关系，即最为人所知的复杂性原则。研究人员在三个不同的领域寻求对这一复杂性原理的解释：认知理解加工、语言通道和认知生产加工。基于这些说明，我们制定了关于复杂性原则在荷兰动词的直接宾语和介词宾语之间的交替中的作用半径的预测佐肯'搜索'。这些预测是针对语料库观察进行测试的。我们的结果证实了根据哪些可选元素指示生产困难的帐户，以及由于语言渠道限制而解释该原则的帐户。此外，我们的结果表明，该原则对由其根本原因导致的由上下文确定的限制敏感。这可能对交替研究提出警告。