ABSTRACT
Complexity theorists are fundamentally concerned with describing and tracing emerging patterns in dynamic systems in order to explain change and growth. Furthermore, E. Morin distinguishes between general complexity and restricted complexity, the former being philosophical and the latter methodological. From a restricted complexity perspective, evidence can come from computer simulations of complex systems; formalisms can be used to model complex systems. Complexity introduces the theme of emergence, “the spontaneous occurrence of something new” that arises from the interaction of the components of a complex system, just as a bird flock emerges from the interaction of individual birds. For the analytic measurements, the texts were scored on measures of syntactic complexity, phrasal complexity, lexical complexity, and lexical sophistication. Complexity theorists study change through time, sometimes continuous change, sometimes sudden. Dynamic systems are represented as trajectories or paths in state space.
