Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics
Physics and Society
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the application of a bit-string model of languages (Schulze and Stauffer 2005) to problems of taxonomic patterns. The questions addressed include the following: (1) Which parameters are minimally ne eded for the development of a taxonomic dynamics leading to the type of distribution of language family sizes currently attested (as measured in the i number of languages per family), which appears to be a power-law? (2) How may such a model be coupled with one of the dynamics of speaker populations leading to the type of language size seen today, which appears to follow a log-normal distribution?
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0604146,
title = {Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics},
author = {Soren Wichmann and Dietrich Stauffer and F. Welington S. Lima and Christian Schulze},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0604146},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
18 pages including 9 figures