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Re: Accelerated language evolution : a proposed experiment

From:<veritosproject@...>
Date:Saturday, October 22, 2005, 18:09
Here be Gmail!  Watch Reply-to!

The evolution might also be faster because people type in shorthand so
much when IMing (like IMing for example).

On 10/21/05, Alex Fink <a4pq1injbok_0@...> wrote:
> I've had a similar idea before; this would certainly be interesting. > Indeed, I wonder whether it's feasible to do such an experiment online over > instant messaging. This would have big implications for 'phonology': the > underlying production mechanism would be keyboard input instead of speech, > which would make the natural 'phonological systems' and 'sound changes' > drastically different than the familiar speech-based ones (there would > probably be significant interference from familiar orthographies, though). > But as far as morphology and syntax and lexicon, the experiment should be > relatively medium-independent. > > I conjecture that, if all the participants are fluent speakers of the same > natlang (e.g. English, as you seem to assume), the language of the > experiment would probably quickly absorb features of that natlang, > especially given the imposed higher rate of change. Of course, this would > allow an interesting variant on the experiment looking at how much > interference takes place and how quickly; but it strikes me that it would be > difficult to get a good simulation of language change independent of any > natlang if all the volunteers had a common language initially. > > Alex > > On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:55:55 +0100, Peter Bleackley > <Peter.Bleackley@...> wrote: > > >I know that some people on the list are professional linguists, so I > >thought that they might be interested in the proposed methodology for > >studying the evolution of languages in real time. The idea is that language > >evolves due to the errors that speakers make during language acquisition. > >People normally spend quite a long time on language acquisition, in > >constant contact with fluent speakers, and so are able to correct most of > >these errors. If people have to learn a language in a limited time, with > >limited access to fluent speakers, the rate of change will be > >correspondingly higher. > > > >At the start of the experiment, a group of volunteers (Generation 0) is > >given information about a conlang, consisting of a core vocabulary (common > >to all volunteers), an extended vocabulary (50% of the remaining lexicon, > >selected at random, different for each volunteer), a basic grammar, and a > >set of example sentences based on the core vocabulary. Each volunteer is > >told that he is a field linguist, visiting the native speakers of the > >language, which at the end of two years he must document. The native > >speakers are monolingual. > >The volunteers meet in a room around 3 time a week for two hours at a time > >and try to communicate in the language. There are various props in the room > >that they can use to try to illustrate what they are saying. > > > >At the end of the first year, Generation 1 joins the experiment. They are > >also told that they are field linguists, and that their task is to learn > >the language from its native speakers and produce a report at the end of > >two years. They, however, are given no initial information about the > >language - they only have Generation 0 to learn it from, and both > >generations are under strict instructions to use no English and maintain > >the fiction that the native speakers are monolingual. At the end of each > >year N, a new Generation N of volunteers joins the experiment. > > > > From the end of year 2 onwards, Generation N-2 leaves the experiment and > >writes their field reports. This has the effect of removing the most fluent > >speakers from the pool, and thus ensuring that a number of the errors that > >the younger speakers have made become permanently incorporated into the > >language. The field reports are studied to see how the language has changed > >- what sound changes are occurring, what new grammatical features are > >emerging, what changes the lexicon is undergoing. > > > >Pete > >========================================================================= >