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1 April 2009 Modeling Interactions between Language Evolution and Demography
Paul Vogt
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Abstract

In this article I provide a review of studies that have modeled interactions between language evolution and demographic processes. The models are classified in terms of three different approaches: analytical modeling, agent-based analytical modeling, and agent-based cognitive modeling. I show that these approaches differ in the complexity of interactions that they can handle and that the agent-based cognitive models allow for the most detailed and realistic simulations. Thus readers are provided with a guideline for selecting which approach to use for a given problem. The analytical models are useful for studying interactions between demography and language evolution in terms of high-level processes; the agent-based analytical models are good for studying such interactions in terms of social dynamics without bothering too much about the cognitive mechanisms of language processing; and the agent-based cognitive models are best suited for the study of the interactions between the complex sociocognitive mechanisms underlying language evolution.

Copyright © 2009 Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201-1309
Paul Vogt "Modeling Interactions between Language Evolution and Demography," Human Biology 81(3), 237-258, (1 April 2009). https://doi.org/10.3378/027.081.0307
Received: 13 January 2009; Accepted: 16 April 2009; Published: 1 April 2009
KEYWORDS
AGENT-BASED MODELS
ANALYTICAL MODELS
LANGUAGE CHANGE
LANGUAGE CONTACT
LANGUAGE EVOLUTION
LANGUAGE ORIGINS
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