Abstract
This paper describes the use of cellular automata to model dialect feature diffusion as the adaptive aspect of the complex system of speech. We show how a feature, once established, can spread across an area, and how the distribution of a dialect feature as it stands in Linguistic Atlas data could either spread or diminish. Throughout hundreds of iterations, we can watch regional and social distribution patterns emerge as a consequence of update rules. We validate patterns with respect to the linguistic distributions known to occur in the Linguistic Atlas Project.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, D., Strogatz, S.: Linguistics: Modelling the Dynamics of Lan-guage Death. Nature 424(6951), 900 (2003)
Grieve, J., Speelman, D., Geeraerts, D.: The Emergence of Regional Linguistic Variation: A Computer Simulation. Paper Presented at NWAV 39, San Antonio (2010)
Keller, R.: On Language Change: The Invisible Hand in Language, Trans. by Nerlich, B. Routledge, London (1994)
Kerswill, P.: Models of Linguistic Change and Diffusion: New Evidence from Dialect Leveling in British English. Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 6, 187–216 (2002)
Kretzschmar Jr., W.A.: Isoglosses and Predictive Modeling. American Speech 67, 227–249 (1992)
Kretzschmar Jr., W.A.: The Linguistics of speech. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2009)
Kretzschmar Jr., W.A.: Language variation and complex systems. American Speech 85, 263–286 (2010)
Kretzschmar Jr., W.A., Kretzschmar, B., Brockman, I.: Scaled measurement of geographic and social speech data. Literary and Linguistic Computing 28, 173–187 (2013)
Kretzschmar Jr., W.A., Light, D.: Mapping with Numbers. Journal of English Linguistics 24, 343–357 (1996)
Nerbonne, J.: Measuring the diffusion of linguistic change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 365, pp. 3821–3828 (2010)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kretzschmar, W.A., Juuso, I. (2014). Cellular Automata for Modeling Language Change. In: WÄ…s, J., Sirakoulis, G.C., Bandini, S. (eds) Cellular Automata. ACRI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8751. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11520-7_35
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11520-7_35
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11519-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11520-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)