Building social cognitive models of language change

Daniel Hruschka; Morten H. Christiansen; Richard A. Blythe; William Croft; Paul Heggarty; Salikoko S. Mufwene; Janet B. Pierrehumbert; Shana Poplack

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.08.008

Building social cognitive models of language change

Daniel Hruschka, Morten H. Christiansen, Richard A. Blythe, William Croft, Paul Heggarty, Salikoko S. Mufwene, Janet B. Pierrehumbert, Shana Poplack

Human Evolution and Social Change, School of (SHESC)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

Studies of language change have begun to contribute to answering several pressing questions in cognitive sciences, including the origins of human language capacity, the social construction of cognition and the mechanisms underlying culture change in general. Here, we describe recent advances within a new emerging framework for the study of language change, one that models such change as an evolutionary process among competing linguistic variants. We argue that a crucial and unifying element of this framework is the use of probabilistic, data-driven models both to infer change and to compare competing claims about social and cognitive influences on language change.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	464-469
Number of pages	6
Journal	Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume	13
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.08.008
State	Published - Nov 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience

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10.1016/j.tics.2009.08.008

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title = "Building social cognitive models of language change",

abstract = "Studies of language change have begun to contribute to answering several pressing questions in cognitive sciences, including the origins of human language capacity, the social construction of cognition and the mechanisms underlying culture change in general. Here, we describe recent advances within a new emerging framework for the study of language change, one that models such change as an evolutionary process among competing linguistic variants. We argue that a crucial and unifying element of this framework is the use of probabilistic, data-driven models both to infer change and to compare competing claims about social and cognitive influences on language change.",

author = "Daniel Hruschka and Christiansen, {Morten H.} and Blythe, {Richard A.} and William Croft and Paul Heggarty and Mufwene, {Salikoko S.} and Pierrehumbert, {Janet B.} and Shana Poplack",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Chris Wood, Ray Jackendoff and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article, and the Santa Fe Institute for funding the working group {\textquoteleft}Models of Innovation and Propagation in Language Change{\textquoteright}. ",

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AU - Hruschka, Daniel

AU - Christiansen, Morten H.

AU - Blythe, Richard A.

AU - Croft, William

AU - Heggarty, Paul

AU - Mufwene, Salikoko S.

AU - Pierrehumbert, Janet B.

AU - Poplack, Shana

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Building social cognitive models of language change

Abstract

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