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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features.

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.

SUBMITTER: Kauhanen H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7775759 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features.

Kauhanen Henri H Gopal Deepthi D Galla Tobias T Bermúdez-Otero Ricardo R

Science advances 20210101 1

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 ...[more]

PMID: 33523866

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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features.

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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features.

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