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A computer simulation of language families1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2008

PAULO MURILO CASTRO DE OLIVEIRA ,
DIETRICH STAUFFER ,
SØREN WICHMANN  and
SUZANA MOSS DE OLIVEIRA
PAULO MURILO CASTRO DE OLIVEIRA*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal Fluminense
DIETRICH STAUFFER*
Affiliation:
Cologne University
SØREN WICHMANN*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology & Leiden University
SUZANA MOSS DE OLIVEIRA*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal Fluminense
*
Authors' addresses: (Castro de Oliveira & Moss de Oliveira) Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Litorânea s/n, Boa Viagem, Niterói24210-340, RJ, Brazil. PMCO@IF.UFF.BR, suzana@if.uff.br
(Stauffer) Institute for Theoretical Physics, Cologne University, D-50923 Cologne, Germany. dstauff@thp.uni-koeln.de
(Wichmann) Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. wichmann@eva.mpg.de
Authors' addresses: (Castro de Oliveira & Moss de Oliveira) Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Litorânea s/n, Boa Viagem, Niterói24210-340, RJ, Brazil. PMCO@IF.UFF.BR, suzana@if.uff.br
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Abstract

This paper presents computer simulations of language populations and the development of language families, showing how a simple model can lead to distributions similar to those observed empirically by Wichmann (2005) and others. The model combines features of two models used in earlier work for the simulation of competition among languages: the ‘Viviane’ model for the migration of peoples and the propagation of languages, and the ‘Schulze’ model, which uses bit-strings as a way of characterising structural features of languages.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , November 2008 , pp. 659 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[1]

Work on this paper was carried out while Castro de Oliveira, Dietrich Stauffer and Suzana Moss de Oliveira were visiting Laboratoire PMMH, École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (10 rue Vauquelin, F-75231 Paris, France). The authors are grateful to JL's anonymous referees for their comments on the original submission and subsequent revisions.

References

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