Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:45:08.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting transmission and diffusion: An agent-based model of vowel chain shifts across large communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2013

James N. Stanford  and
Laurence A. Kenny
James N. Stanford
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
Laurence A. Kenny
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this study, we present the first agent-based simulation of vowel chain shifts across large communities, providing a parsimonious reinterpretation of Labov's (2007) notions of transmission, diffusion, and incrementation. Labov determined that parent-to-child transmission faithfully reproduces structural patterns such as the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), but adult-to-adult diffusion does not. NCS is transmitted faithfully to new generations of U.S. Inland North children. But St. Louis speakers, depending only on adult-adult contact, only attain an incomplete, unsystematic version. Labov (2007) attributed the difference to children's superior language-learning ability; transmission and diffusion are categorically different processes in that approach. By contrast, our multiagent simulation suggests that such transmission/diffusion effects can be derived by simple density of interactions and simple exemplar learning; we also find that incrementation is a natural outcome of this model. Unlike Labov (2007), this model does not require a dichotomy between transmission and diffusion. While dichotomous assumptions about child versus adult learning may be necessary in other contexts, our results suggest that the NCS effects in Labov (2007) may be explained economically in terms of simple density of interactions between speakers. Our results also provide an agent-based perspective supporting and explicating the notion of speech community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 119 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrams, Daniel, & Strogatz, Steven. (2003). Modeling the dynamics of language death. Nature 424:900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bavin, Edith. (2009). The Cambridge handbook of child language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Gareth, Blythe, Richard, Croft, William, & McKane, Alan. (2006). Utterance selection model of language change. Physical Review E 73:046118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baxter, Gareth, Blythe, Richard, Croft, William, & McKane, Alan. (2009). Modeling language change: An evaluation of Trudgill's theory of the emergence of New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 21:257–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckner, Clay, Blythe, Richard, Bybee, Joan, Christiansen, Morten, Croft, William, Ellis, Nick, Holland, John, Ke, Jinyun, Larsen-Freeman, Diane, & Schoenemann, Tom. (2009). Language is a complex adaptive system: Position paper. Language Learning 59(1):1–26.Google Scholar
Berger, Peter, & Luckmann, Thomas. (1967 [1966]). The social construction of reality. New York: Anchor Doubleday.Google Scholar
Berrah, Ahmed-Reda, & Laboissiere, Rafael. (1997). Phonetic code emergence in a society of speech robots: Explaining vowel systems and the MUAF principle. Paper presented at: the Fifth European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology, EUROSPEECH 1997, September 22–25, Rhodes, Greece.Google Scholar
Birdsong, David (ed.). (1999). Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard. (1933). Language. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Blythe, Richard, & Croft, William. (2009). The speech community in evolutionary dynamics. Language Learning 59(1):47–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blythe, Richard, & Croft, William. (2012). S-curves and the mechanisms of propagation in language change. Language 88(2):269–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary. (1999). “Why be normal?”: Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language in Society 28:203–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (1994). A view of phonology from a cognitive and functional perspective. Cognitive Linguistics 5:285–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (2001). Phonology and language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (2010). Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan, & Beckner, Clay. (2010). Usage-based theory. In Heine, B. & Narrog, H. (eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 827–855.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, & Hopper, Paul. (2001). Frequency and the emergence of language structure. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cangelosi, Angelo, & Parisi, Domenico. (2001). How nouns and verb differentially affect the behavior of artificial organisms. In Moore, J. & Stenning, K. (eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. London: Lawrence Erlbaum. 170–175.Google Scholar
Cangelosi, Angelo, & Parisi, Domenico. (eds). (2002). Computer simulation: A new scientific approach to the study of language evolution. London: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Clark, Eve. (2009). First language acquisition. 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coupland, Nikolas. (2001). Language, situation, and the relational self. In Eckert, P. & Rickford, J. (eds.), Style and sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 185–210.Google Scholar
De Boer, Bart. (2000). Self-organization in vowel systems. Journal of Phonetics 28(4):441–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Boer, Bart. (2001). The origins of vowel systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Boer, Bart, & Zuidema, William. (2010). Multi-agent simulations of the evolution of combinatorial phonology. Adaptive Behavior 18(2):141–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinkin, Aaron. (2011). Weakening resistance: Progress toward the low back merger in New York State. Language Variation and Change 23(3):315–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (1988). Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society 17:183–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (1999). Linguistic variation as social practice. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (2005). Variation, convention, and social meaning. Plenary address at Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, January 6-9, Oakland, California.Google Scholar
Epstein, Joshua, & Axtell, Robert. (1996). Growing artificial societies. Social science from the bottom up. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ettlinger, Marc. (2007). Shifting categories: An exemplar-based computational model of chain shifts. University of California Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report. Berkeley: University of California Press. 177–182.Google Scholar
Fagyal, Zsuzsanna, Swarup, Samarth, Escobar, Anna Maria, Gasser, Les, & Lakkaraju, Kiran. (2010). Centers and peripheries: Network roles in language change. Lingua 120:2061–2079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flege, James. (1999). Age of learning and second language speech. In Birdsong, D. (ed.), Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis. Hillsdale: Erlbaum. 101–132.Google Scholar
Flege, James. (2009). Give input a chance. In Piske, T. & Young-Scholten, M. (eds.), Input matters in SLA. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 175–190.Google Scholar
Folcik, Virginia, Broderick, Gordon, Mohan, Shunmugan, Block, Brian, Ekbote, Chirantan, Doolittle, John, Khoury, Marc, Davis, Luke, & Marsh, Clay B. (2011). Using an agent-based model to analyze the dynamic communication network of the immune response. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 18:1.Google Scholar
Gergen, Kenneth J. (1994). Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure, and contradiction in social analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Matthew. (2001). Small-town values and big city vowels: A study of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan. Publication of the American Dialect Society 84. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, K. David, Dras, Mark, & Kapicioglu, Berk. (2002). Agent-based modeling of the evolution of vowel harmony. In Hirotani, M. (ed.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 32. University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Graduate Linguistic Student Association.Google Scholar
Heath, Brian, Hill, Raymond, & Ciarallo, Frank. (2009). A survey of agent-based modeling practices (January 1998 to July 2008). Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 12(4):9.Google Scholar
Holland, John H. (1995). Hidden order: How adaptation builds complexity. Cambridge: Perseus.Google Scholar
Holland, John H. (1998). Emergence: From chaos to order. Cambridge: Perseus.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Keith. (1997). Speech perception with speaker normalization: An exemplar model. In Johnson, K. & Mullennix, J. (eds.), Talker variability in speech processing. San Diego: Academic Press. 145–165.Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith. (2000). Adaptive dispersion in vowel perception. Phonetica 57:181–188.Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith. (2006). Resonance in an exemplar-based model: The emergence of social identity and phonology. Journal of Phonetics 34:485–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, Barbara. (2004). Place, globalization, and linguistic variation. In Fought, C. (ed.), Sociolinguistic variation: Critical reflections. New York: Oxford University Press. 65–83.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul, & Williams, Ann. (2000). Creating a New Town koine: Children and language change in Milton Keynes. Language in Society 29:65–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, Simon. (1999). Function, selection and innateness: The emergence of language universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kretzschmar, William A. Jr. (2009). The linguistics of speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (1972/1991). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1994). Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 1: Internal factors. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (2001). Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 2: Social factors. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (2007). Transmission and diffusion. Language 83:344–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (2010). Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 3: Cognitive and cultural factors. Malden: Wiley Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (2012). What is to be learned? The community as the focus of social cognition. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 10(2):265–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon, & Boberg, Charles. (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Yaeger, Malcah, & Steiner, Richard. (1972). A quantitative study of sound change in progress. Philadelphia: U.S. Regional Survey.Google Scholar
Lakkaraju, Kiran, Swarup, Samarth, & Gasser, Les. (2009). Consensus under constraints: Modeling the Great English Vowel Shift. Paper presented at: the Workshop of Social Simulation, 21st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July 11, Pasadena, California.Google Scholar
Liljencrants, Johan, & Lindblom, Bjorn. (1972). Numerical simulations of vowel quality systems: The role of perceptual contrast. Language 48:839–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindblom, Bjorn. (1986). Phonetic universals in vowel systems. In Ohala, J. & Jaeger, J. (eds.), Experimental phonology. Orlando: Academic Press. 13–44.Google Scholar
Lust, Barbara, & Foley, Claire (eds). (2004). First language acquisition: The essential readings. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Maddieson, Ian. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, Corrine. (2010). The Northern Cities Shift in real time: Evidence from Chicago. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 15(2):101–110.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Corrine. (2011). The Northern Cities Shift in Chicago. Journal of English Linguistics 39(2):166–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma. (2008). Homegirls: Language and cultural practice among Latina youth gangs. Malden: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minett, James W., & Wang, William S.-Y. (2008). Modeling endangered languages: The effects of bilingualism and social structure. Lingua 118:19–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niyogi, Partha, & Berwick, Robert. (2009). The proper treatment of language acquisition and change in a population setting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(25):10124–10129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nowak, Martin, Komarova, Natalia, & Niyogi, Partha. (2002). Computational and evolutionary aspects of language. Nature 417:611–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves, & Kaplan, Frederic. (2007). Language evolution as a Darwinian process: Computational studies. Cognitive Processing 8:21–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pierrehumbert, Janet. (2001). Exemplar dynamics: Word frequency, lenition, and contrast. In Bybee, J. & Hopper, P. (eds.), Frequency effects and the emergence of lexical structure. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 137–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet. (2003). Probabilistic phonology: Discrimination and robustness. In Bod, R., Hay, J., & Jannedy, S. (eds.), Probability theory in linguistics. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 177–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. (1978). Structure, word, event. In Reagan, C. & Stewart, D. (eds.), The philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. Boston: Beacon. 109–119.Google Scholar
Sanz, Cristina (ed.). (2005). Mind and context in second language acquisition. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Satterfield, Teresa. (2001). Toward a sociogenetic solution: Examining language formation processes through SWARM modeling. Social Science Computer Review 19:281–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulze, Christian, Stauffer, Dietrich, & Wichmann, Soren. (2008). Birth, survival and death of languages by Monte Carlo simulation. Communications in Computational Physics 3(2):271–294.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Jean-Luc, Boe, Louis-Jean, & Abry, Christian. (2007). Linking dispersion-focalization theory and the maximum utilization of the available distinctive features principle in a perception-for-action-control theory. In Sole, M.-J., Beddor, P. Speeter, & Ohala, M. (eds.), Experimental approaches to phonology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 104–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Jean-Luc, Boe, Louis-Jean, Vallee, Nathalie, & Abry, Christian. (1997). The dispersion-focalization theory of vowel systems. Journal of Phonetics 25:255–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solé, Ricard. (2011). Phase transitions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stanford, James N. (2008). Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12:567–596.Google Scholar
Steels, Luc. (1998). Synthesising the origins of language and meaning using co-evolution, self-organisation and level formation. In Hurford, J. R., Studdert-Kennedy, M., & Knight, C. (eds.), Approaches to the evolution of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 384–404.Google Scholar
Steels, Luc, & McIntyre, Angus. (1999). Spatially distributed naming games. Advances in Complex Systems 1:301–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. (2009). The usage-based theory of language acquisition. In Bavin, E. (ed.), The Cambridge handbook of child language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (2004). New dialect formation: The inevitability of Colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (2008). Colonial dialect contact in the history of European languages: On the irrelevance of identity to new-dialect formation. Language in Society 37(2):241–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (2010). Investigations in sociohistorical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Zhihui, Zhang, Le, Sagotsky, Jonathan, & Deisboeck, Thomas. (2007). Simulating non-small cell lung cancer with a multiscale agent-based model. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 4:50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warner, Thomas T. (2011). Numerical weather and climate prediction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wedel, Andrew. (2006). Exemplar models, evolution and language change. The Linguistic Review 23:247–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedel, Andrew. (2007). Feedback and regularity in the lexicon. Phonology 24(1):147–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. (1967). Philosophische untersuchungen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar