A Dynamical Systems Model for Language Change.

Abstract

Formalizing linguists' intuitions of language change as a dynamical system, we quantify the time course of language change including sudden vs. gradual changes in languages. We apply the computer model to the historical loss of Verb Second from Old French to modern French, showing that otherwise adequate grammatical theories can fail our new evolutionary criterion.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA307027

Entities

People

  • Partha Niyogi
  • Robert C. Berwick

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter IED

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computers
  • Demographic Cohorts
  • Grammars
  • Language
  • Learning
  • Markov Chains
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Personal Information Managers
  • Probability
  • Recursive Functions
  • Simulations
  • Trajectories

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies