{"title":"Are Languages like Atoms? On Modelling Language Spread as a Physicist","authors":"Katharina Prochazka, G. Vogl","doi":"10.1515/GLOT-2018-0005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In physics, the spread of particles such as atoms is called diffusion. The same term is employed in linguistics to describe the spread of language features or languages as a whole. In this paper, we investigate how models for physical diffusion can be transferred to linguistics to study language spread. We review the different ways of describing physical diffusion and then look at two types of models to study language spread. By examining the differences and similarities between speakers, languages and atoms, we show that it is important to be clear about what is being modelled: languages or speakers, as these are quite different but cannot be completely separated—languages cannot exist without speakers and vice versa.","PeriodicalId":37792,"journal":{"name":"Glottotheory","volume":"9 1","pages":"77 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2018-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/GLOT-2018-0005","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Glottotheory","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/GLOT-2018-0005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
Abstract In physics, the spread of particles such as atoms is called diffusion. The same term is employed in linguistics to describe the spread of language features or languages as a whole. In this paper, we investigate how models for physical diffusion can be transferred to linguistics to study language spread. We review the different ways of describing physical diffusion and then look at two types of models to study language spread. By examining the differences and similarities between speakers, languages and atoms, we show that it is important to be clear about what is being modelled: languages or speakers, as these are quite different but cannot be completely separated—languages cannot exist without speakers and vice versa.
期刊介绍：
The foci of Glottotheory are: observations and descriptions of all aspects of language and text phenomena including the areas of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, pragmatics, etc. on all levels of linguistic analysis, applications of methods, models or findings from quantitative linguistics concerning problems of natural language processing, language teaching, documentation and information retrieval, methodological problems of linguistic measurement, model construction, sampling and test theory, epistemological issues such as explanation of language and text phenomena, contributions to theory construction, systems theory, philosophy of science. The journal considers itself as platform for a dialogue between quantitative and qualitative linguistics.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
