Full-text

URL: http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~wedel/publ...kinburgSneetches.pdf

Cached: PDF-871K

SAVE AS an easy-to-recall long filename:

Filename format: author--year--title   PDF-871K

Filename format: author--year--title--journal|proceedings|...--pages   PDF-871K

Related links

Source: http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~wedel/publications/

Web search: Google Web Search   ::   Google Scholar

Abstract

Evidence suggests that differing group identity can promote divergence between linguistic features despite contact between groups. A growing body of work also suggests that divergence may not occur not across the board in such situations. Rather, some features may diverge, while others converge. We model this outcome as an interaction between low-level imitative tendencies in production and processing and a hypothesized higher-level tendency to choose identifiably in-group utterance targets in production. The general imitative tendency that we model here is the perceptual magnet effect, which over time should promote general convergence between linguistic features over time. In contrast, a tendency to produce identifiably in-group utterances should promote gradual divergence. Within a dynamical-systems model of language, we show that these conflicting mechanisms do not simply cancel out, but rather interact to produce a more complex outcome in which a small number of features diverge against a backdrop of general convergence.

@unpublished{wedel07convergenceDivergence,
  author={Andrew B. Wedel and Heather Van Volkinburg},
  title={Modeling simultaneous convergence and divergence of linguistic features between differently-identifying groups in contact},
  year={submitted},
  note={},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/wedel07convergenceDivergence.html}
}

HOME   ::   Paper	Comments to: junwang4 you-know-at gmail.com	Last update: 2/2/08