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Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics

Soren Wichmann·Dietrich Stauffer·F. Welington S. Lima·Christian Schulze
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Abstract

This paper presents the results of the application of a bit-string model of languages (Schulze and Stauffer 2005) to problems of taxonomic patterns. The questions addressed include the following: (1) Which parameters are minimally ne eded for the development of a taxonomic dynamics leading to the type of distribution of language family sizes currently attested (as measured in the i 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?

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Soren Wichmann, Dietrich Stauffer, F. Welington S. Lima, Christian Schulze. 2006-04-19. Modelling linguistic taxonomic dynamics. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0604146

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