Dynamic dialectology and social networks
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Mieko Ogura
Abstract
This paper examines how different structures of social networks affect linguistic selection type of change or functionally biased change, and game type of change or socially biased change, based on simulation and historical data from English. We show that the weaker the functional or social bias, the greater the effects of different network structures on diffusion processes of change. We also show that the weaker the functional or social bias, the more probabilistic the learner becomes, and the stronger the functional or social bias, the more categorical the learner becomes. Furthermore, we discuss that there is little increase in diffusion time with the increase in population size in a small-world and scale-free networks.
Abstract
This paper examines how different structures of social networks affect linguistic selection type of change or functionally biased change, and game type of change or socially biased change, based on simulation and historical data from English. We show that the weaker the functional or social bias, the greater the effects of different network structures on diffusion processes of change. We also show that the weaker the functional or social bias, the more probabilistic the learner becomes, and the stronger the functional or social bias, the more categorical the learner becomes. Furthermore, we discuss that there is little increase in diffusion time with the increase in population size in a small-world and scale-free networks.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
- The early Middle English scribe: Sprach er wie er schrieb? 1
- Essex/Suffolk scribes and their language in fifteenth-century London 45
- Middle English word geography: Methodology and applications illustrated 67
- Northern Middle English: Towards telling the full story 91
- The origins of the Northern Subject Rule 111
- Dynamic dialectology and social networks 131
- The Celtic hypothesis hasn't gone away: New perspectives on old debates 153
- On the trail of "intolerable Scoto-Hibernic jargon": Ulster English, Irish English and dialect hygiene in William Carleton's Traits and stories of the Irish peasantry (First Series, 1830) 171
- Exceptions to sound change and external motivation 185
- Index of subjects 195
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
- The early Middle English scribe: Sprach er wie er schrieb? 1
- Essex/Suffolk scribes and their language in fifteenth-century London 45
- Middle English word geography: Methodology and applications illustrated 67
- Northern Middle English: Towards telling the full story 91
- The origins of the Northern Subject Rule 111
- Dynamic dialectology and social networks 131
- The Celtic hypothesis hasn't gone away: New perspectives on old debates 153
- On the trail of "intolerable Scoto-Hibernic jargon": Ulster English, Irish English and dialect hygiene in William Carleton's Traits and stories of the Irish peasantry (First Series, 1830) 171
- Exceptions to sound change and external motivation 185
- Index of subjects 195
