Language evolution and change from a social networks perspective

• Event: Seminar
• Lecturer: Shiri Lev-Ari
• Date: 29 January 2020
• Duration: 2 hours
• Venue: Gothenburg

Languages exhibit great variability in their structures. In this talk I will show that some of the cross-linguistic differences could be accounted for by languages¿ adaptation to their social environment. I will demonstrate how properties of the community structure, such as its size and interconnectivity, influence how information travels, and consequently the structure of the grammar and vocabulary that the community develops. I will further show how network structure dynamics interact with cognitive biases in a manner that affects linguistic stability and the likely agents of change.