Dependency length minimization: a diachronic investigation of syntactic complexity in German newspaper texts
De Cesare I, Bloom B, Fodor I, Demske U (2026)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2026
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Abstract
This study investigates the principle of Dependency Length Minimization (DLM) in German from a diachronic perspective, looking at the period from 1600 to 1950. It aims to assess whether any changes in dependency length (DL) can be observed over time. Challenging the standard assumption about diachronic DLM, we argue that DLM effects are modulated by the extralinguistic context in which the language is used and thus do not assume that DL as a measure of syntactic complexity decreases over time, but rather put forward the hypothesis that DL is characterized by fluctuations. That is, changes towards a reduction of DL, hence of syntactic complexity, might be observed in environments of increased processing pressure. On the contrary, if the extralinguistic context favors variants that increase syntactic complexity, for example due to normative pressure, DL might even increase. Using a novel diachronic dependency corpus of German newspaper texts, the analysis targets both overall DL and the dependency relation between the lexical verb and the auxiliary specifically, offering a window into changes affecting the size of the middlefield in German.
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Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
De Cesare, I., Bloom, B., Fodor, I., & Demske, U. (2026). Dependency length minimization: a diachronic investigation of syntactic complexity in German newspaper texts. Folia Linguistica. https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2026-3008
MLA:
De Cesare, Ilaria, et al. "Dependency length minimization: a diachronic investigation of syntactic complexity in German newspaper texts." Folia Linguistica (2026).
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