Premium
Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics
Author(s) -
Wichmann Søren,
Stauer Dietrich,
Lima F. Wellington S.,
Schulze Christian
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-968x.2007.00184.x
Subject(s) - string (physics) , linguistics , type (biology) , dynamics (music) , distribution (mathematics) , computer science , mathematics , ecology , sociology , biology , philosophy , mathematical analysis , pedagogy , mathematical physics
This paper presents the results of the application of a bit‐string model of languages (Schulze & Stauffer 2005) to problems of taxonomic patterns. The questions addressed include the following: (1) Which parameters are minimally needed for the development of a taxonomic dynamics leading to the type of distribution of language family sizes currently attested (as measured in the number of languages per family), which appears to be a power‐law? (2) How may such a model be coupled with one of the dynamics of speaker populations leading to the type of language size seen today, which appears to follow a log‐normal distribution?