THE CONCEPT OF “ECONOMY” IN THE SCIENCES OF LANGUAGE: FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST EFFORT TO FUNCTIONAL ECONOMY
THE CONCEPT OF “ECONOMY” IN THE SCIENCES OF LANGUAGE: FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST EFFORT TO FUNCTIONAL ECONOMY

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the evolution of the concept of linguistic economy within the sciences of language, tracing its development from early interpretations centered on individual speaker behavior to contemporary approaches that view economy as a principle governing the organization and functioning of language. The main objective is to demonstrate that linguistic economy cannot be reduced to the simple idea of “saying less,” but rather involves the optimization of communication through a balance between effort, clarity, and communicative efficiency.The theoretical point of departure is the principle of least effort formulated by G. K. Zipf, which explains several linguistic regularities—such as the correlation between frequency and word length—through speakers’ tendency to minimize cognitive and articulatory effort. From this perspective, linguistic economy emerges as a consequence of usage patterns and frequency effects, reflecting speakers’ preference for more efficient communicative strategies.The analysis then addresses the paradigm shift introduced by European functional linguistics, particularly in the work of A. Martinet. Martinet conceptualizes economy not as mere reduction, but as a functional principle that maintains equilibrium between ease of articulation and the need for semantic clarity and differentiation. Linguistic reductions are therefore acceptable only insofar as they do not compromise intelligibility.The discussion is complemented by contributions from Romanian and Eastern European linguistics. E. Coșeriu’s integral linguistics allows economy to be interpreted as operating differently at the levels of use, norm, and system. E. Polivanov describes economy through articulatory simplification and automatization constrained by intelligibility.Finally, the study refers to modern theories of language change, notably Rudi Keller’s “invisible hand” theory, which explains linguistic change as the unplanned outcome of individual actions oriented toward efficiency and later stabilized at the collective level. Linguistic economy thus emerges as a multilevel principle of optimization accounting for the simplicity, efficiency, and stability of language.

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