Work

Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Quantifying the speed of linguistic change is challenging because the historical evolution of languages is sparsely documented. Consequently, traditional methods rely on phylogenetic reconstruction. Here, we propose a model-based approach to the problem through the analysis of language change as a stochastic process combining vertical descent, spatial interactions, and mutations in both dimensions. A notion of linguistic temperature emerges naturally from this analysis as a dimensionless measure of the propensity of a linguistic feature to undergo change. We demonstrate how temperatures of linguistic features can be inferred from their present-day geospatial distributions, without recourse to information about their phylogenies. Thus, the evolutionary dynamics of language, operating across thousands of years, leave a measurable geospatial signature. This signature licenses inferences about the historical evolution of languages even in the absence of longitudinal data.

Source: Science Advances

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe6540

Authors: Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla, Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero

Institutions: University of Konstanz, University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems, Universitat de les Illes Balears

Language: English

Topic: Language and cultural evolution

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,500

Funders: Ella ja Georg Ehrnroothin Säätiö, Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg, Emil Aaltosen Säätiö, Economic and Social Research Council