Walkden and Breitbarth employ historical data in order to test a conjecture expressed by Trudgill (2011) regarding a link between linguistic complexity and the language-contact situation: namely, “short-term contact involving extensive adult second-language (L2) use is predicted to lead to simplification” (W&B). Specifically, the authors address this conjecture with respect to syntactic complexity. They operationalize syntactic complexity as universal (i.e. L1-independent) L2learner difficulty. Drawing on L2 research in the generative tradition, W&B use a specific theoretical concept supposed to faithfully capture L2-difficulty: Interpretability Hypothesis, which states that (assuming a broadly MinimalistFramework analysis) uninterpretable features are not easily available to L2learners. This should lead to syntactic analyses involving uninterpretable features being harder to learn, which in turn should facilitate patterns of language change where uninterpretable features get lost. W&B discuss a number of cases, primarily concerning Jespersen’s cycle in Germanic and Romance, that suggest that their explanation is compatible with the data. The program outlined by the authors is ambitious and promising; the shortcomings of the current argument as it stands should not detract from that. Though the authors employ a syntactic characterization relative to a single kind of syntactic theories, uninterpretable features in their framework would likely correspond to other specific types of syntactic properties in other traditions; briefly put, an uninterpretable feature indicates the presence of a purely formal syntactic relation, such as agreement, movement or movement-like relation, etc. It is reasonable to argue that the presence of such (obligatory) relations corresponds well to the intuitive notion of syntactic complexity. The authors only provide cases where uninterpretable features got lost, under their analyses, and cite roughly contemporaneous contact circumstances that approximately agree with the circumstances described in Trudgill’s conjecture. This does provide tantalizing support for W&B’s theory, in that the data are compatible with their explanation. It does not at this point provide

中文翻译：

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学习和替代语法中无法解释的特征？

Walkden和Breitbarth利用历史数据来检验Trudgill（2011）所表达的关于语言复杂性和语言接触状况之间联系的猜想：即，“预计广泛使用成人第二语言（L2）的短期接触导致简化”（W＆B）。具体来说，作者针对句法复杂性解决了这个猜想。他们将语法复杂性作为通用的（即独立于L1）L2learner难度进行操作。W＆B借鉴了生成传统中的L2研究，使用了一个特定的理论概念来忠实地把握L2的困难：可解释性假设，它指出（假设是一个极简框架分析），L2学习者不容易获得不可解释的特征。这将导致难以理解的语法分析涉及到难以理解的特征，这反过来又应有助于在语言中出现无法解释的特征丢失的情况下进行语言转换。W＆B讨论了许多案例，主要涉及耶斯珀森在日耳曼语和罗曼史中的循环，这表明它们的解释与数据兼容。作者概述的程序雄心勃勃，前景广阔。当前论点的不足之处不应因此而受到损害。尽管作者采用相对于一种句法理论的句法表征，但其框架中无法解释的特征很可能对应于其他传统中的其他特定类型的句法属性。简而言之，不可解释的特征表明存在纯粹的形式句法关系，例如协议，运动或类似运动的关系等。可以合理地辩称，这种（强制性）关系的存在与语法复杂性的直觉概念非常吻合。作者仅提供了在其分析下无法解释的特征丢失的情况，并列举了与Trudgill猜想中描述的情况大致相符的大致同期接触情况。这确实为W＆B的理论提供了诱人的支持，因为数据与其解释兼容。目前尚不提供 在他们的分析下，并列举了与Trudgill猜想中描述的情况大致相符的大致同时的接触情况。这确实为W＆B的理论提供了诱人的支持，因为数据与其解释兼容。目前尚不提供 在他们的分析下，并列举了与Trudgill猜想中描述的情况大致相符的大致同时的接触情况。这确实为W＆B的理论提供了诱人的支持，因为数据与其解释兼容。目前尚不提供