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Modeling language change across the lifespan: Individual trajectories in community change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2016

Gareth Baxter  and
William Croft
Gareth Baxter
Affiliation:
University of Aveiro
William Croft
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Abstract

We use a mathematical model to examine three phenomena involving language change across the lifespan: the apparent time construct, the adolescent peak, and two different patterns of individual change. The apparent time construct is attributed to a decline in flexibility toward language change over one's lifetime; this explanation is borne out in our model. The adolescent peak has been explained by social networks: children interact more with caregivers a generation older until later childhood and adolescence. We find that the peak also occurs with many other network structures, so the peak is not specifically due to caregiver interaction. The two patterns of individual change are one in which most individuals change gradually, following the mean of community change, and another in which most individuals have more categorical behavior and change rapidly if they change at all. Our model suggests that they represent different balances between the differential weighting of competing variants and degree of accommodation to other speakers.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , July 2016 , pp. 129 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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