Rate of language evolution is affected by population size
Rate of language evolution is affected by population size
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1419704112
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发表时间：
2015-02-17
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Greenhill, Simon J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bromham, Lindell;Hua, Xia;Greenhill, Simon J.
人口规模对语言进化的模式和速度的影响是有争议的。使用人数较多的语言是因为创新能力更强而变化更快，还是使用人数较少的语言是因为创新传播更有效而变化更快？人口较少的语言会因创始人效应或漂移而遭受更大的语言元素损失，还是说使用者较多的语言会因简化过程而失去特征？揭示人口规模对语言进化的克里思和模式的影响不仅将澄清语言变化的潜在机制，而且对语言数据用于重建人类文化历史的方式具有实际意义。在这里，我们提供了，据我们所知，第一个经验，统计上的强大测试的人口规模对语言进化速度的影响，控制人口的进化历史，并正式比较适合不同的语言进化模型。我们比较了波利尼西亚语言基本词汇的同源词的增加和损失率，这是一个具有明确历史的理想测试案例。我们证明，较大的人口有较高的新词的增益率，而较小的人口有较高的词丢失率。这些结果表明，人口因素可以影响语言进化的速度，并且获得和损失的速度受到不同的影响。这些发现与进化模型的一般预测惊人地一致。
The effect of population size on patterns and rates of language evolution is controversial. Do languages with larger speaker populations change faster due to a greater capacity for innovation, or do smaller populations change faster due to more efficient diffusion of innovations? Do smaller populations suffer greater loss of language elements through founder effects or drift, or do languages with more speakers lose features due to a process of simplification? Revealing the influence of population size on the tempo and mode of language evolution not only will clarify underlying mechanisms of language change but also has practical implications for the way that language data are used to reconstruct the history of human cultures. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first empirical, statistically robust test of the influence of population size on rates of language evolution, controlling for the evolutionary history of the populations and formally comparing the fit of different models of language evolution. We compare rates of gain and loss of cognate words for basic vocabulary in Polynesian languages, an ideal test case with a well-defined history. We demonstrate that larger populations have higher rates of gain of new words whereas smaller populations have higher rates of word loss. These results show that demographic factors can influence rates of language evolution and that rates of gain and loss are affected differently. These findings are strikingly consistent with general predictions of evolutionary models.