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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features

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 s...

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Autores principales: Kauhanen, Henri, Gopal, Deepthi, Galla, Tobias, Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33523866
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe6540
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author Kauhanen, Henri
Gopal, Deepthi
Galla, Tobias
Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo
author_facet Kauhanen, Henri
Gopal, Deepthi
Galla, Tobias
Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo
author_sort Kauhanen, Henri
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-77757592021-01-14 Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features Kauhanen, Henri Gopal, Deepthi Galla, Tobias Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo Sci Adv Research Articles 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. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021-01-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7775759/ /pubmed/33523866 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe6540 Text en Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Kauhanen, Henri
Gopal, Deepthi
Galla, Tobias
Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo
Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title_full Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title_fullStr Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title_full_unstemmed Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title_short Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
title_sort geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7775759/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33523866
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe6540
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