Evolutionary modelling of population-level language variation and change

Описание: Evolutionary modelling of population-level language variation and change

Presenters: Felicity Meakins, Lindell Bromham, Xia Hua

Abstract: This masterclass will highlight interdisciplinary work in CoEDL that links linguists to evolutionary biologists, developing new ways of investigating the patterns and processes of language change. Lindell will start with a general introduction to the intersections between biological evolution and language change, highlighting both similarities and differences, and giving an overview of the many ways in which techniques developed in evolutionary biology can be adapted to asking questions in linguistics (hint: it’s not about making phylogenies!). Felicity will describe field methods and data collection strategies that can produce powerful datasets suited to statistical analysis and can be used to test long-standing ideas in linguistics such as processes of simplification and complexification, linguistic coherence, and influences on social and generational factors on patterns of language change over time. Xia will then give an overview of methods she has developed, adapting evolutionary models to be applicable to language data collected from speaker populations, explaining the aims and the basic approach (note that this will be a general demonstration of the methods, not hands-on participation).

*This session was presented for the CoEDL Summer Masterclasses at the 2021 ALS Conference. To watch other sessions in the Masterclass program, view the full playlist at    • CoEDL 2021 Masterclasses