Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change
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Nour Efrat-Kowalsky
Abstract
This chapter adopts Mufwene’s (2001) framework according to which language acquisition is a process whereby competition and selection of linguistic features from the inputs create a unique idiolect. It examines the principles of selection of a given feature over others, and the mechanisms by which a feature spreads across a community (i.e., from one idiolect to another). These questions are addressed at the individual and population levels by analysing data from a twitter corpus. The frequency of a feature in the input as well as a suggested learnability factor are relevant to this discussion. Learnability is defined as the combination of the specific linguistic properties of a linguistic feature, and the universal human capacity to learn those specific properties.
Abstract
This chapter adopts Mufwene’s (2001) framework according to which language acquisition is a process whereby competition and selection of linguistic features from the inputs create a unique idiolect. It examines the principles of selection of a given feature over others, and the mechanisms by which a feature spreads across a community (i.e., from one idiolect to another). These questions are addressed at the individual and population levels by analysing data from a twitter corpus. The frequency of a feature in the input as well as a suggested learnability factor are relevant to this discussion. Learnability is defined as the combination of the specific linguistic properties of a linguistic feature, and the universal human capacity to learn those specific properties.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Acronyms and glosses ix
- Portrait of Salikoko S. Mufwene xiv
- Introduction 1
- A sociolinguistic typology for languages in contact 23
- A local history of Tok Pisin 57
- Conventionalized creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri 81
- Acquisition or shift? 105
- Substrate influence in Northern Quechua languages 133
- Coordination in the Suriname Creoles 161
- Reflections on Darwin’s natural selection 191
- Building grammar in the early stages of development of French Creoles 211
- Foundings and futures 243
- Detecting loan words computationally 269
- Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change 289
- The restructuring of Salikoko Mufwene through competition and selection 307
- Language Index 327
- Subject Index 329
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Acronyms and glosses ix
- Portrait of Salikoko S. Mufwene xiv
- Introduction 1
- A sociolinguistic typology for languages in contact 23
- A local history of Tok Pisin 57
- Conventionalized creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri 81
- Acquisition or shift? 105
- Substrate influence in Northern Quechua languages 133
- Coordination in the Suriname Creoles 161
- Reflections on Darwin’s natural selection 191
- Building grammar in the early stages of development of French Creoles 211
- Foundings and futures 243
- Detecting loan words computationally 269
- Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change 289
- The restructuring of Salikoko Mufwene through competition and selection 307
- Language Index 327
- Subject Index 329
