Evaluation of the Processes Shaping Geographic Patterns of Language Diversity with Process-Based Simulation Models

这项研究项目将考察北美语言多样性的起源和地理基础的过程。除了英语、法语和西班牙语外，欧洲大陆上还有数百种语言，这些语言分布不均，在一些地方比其他地方的多样性要大得多。尽管这种语言多样性得到了很好的记录，并从根本上影响了人类的交流方式，但人们对语言多样性的地理模式形成的过程知之甚少。研究人员将改进一种新的模拟建模方法，以提供关于过去10,000年来不同社会和环境过程对语言多样性模式影响的程度的新理解。该项目将使用的方法将提供新的工具，以便更大规模和更长期地为发现影响地球上文化多样性的多个方面的过程做出贡献。研究人员将绘制北美语言多样性地图，并为研究人员、教育工作者、学生和公众提供开放获取的资源。该项目将进一步加强国际和跨学科的研究人员网络，并将增加为研究文化和语言多样性而创建的开放获取的全球数据库的效用。该项目还将为不同的本科生和研究生提供跨学科的教育和培训机会。为什么人类集体会说这么多语言，为什么这些语言的地理分布如此不均匀？早在几个世纪以前，来自许多学科的研究人员就不同的社会文化、环境和地理因素塑造语言多样性的程度进行了辩论，但由于方法学上的局限性，这些假说的少数几个检验未能达成共识，包括多变量分析方法的不足，未能解释由于空间接近和共同祖先而导致的社会的非独立性，以及对复杂的因果因素网络以及多样化和灭绝的时空动力学的不充分关注。以前的研究也在很大程度上依赖于基于相关性的分析，这种分析只意味着关联，不能确定导致多样性模式的机制。承担这一项目的研究人员率先在生物地理学中使用了基于过程的模拟建模，以克服先前的方法学限制。他们将在这些活动中获得的经验的基础上，利用最近的建模进展来测试来自多个学科关于语言多样性地理位置的长期存在的和相互竞争的假设。以前使用这种方法的工作加强了对降雨和人口统计学如何塑造澳大利亚语言多样性模式的理解。通过将他们的注意力扩大到北美，研究人员希望对影响全球不同地区文化多样性的许多方面的社会、文化、历史和环境过程提供新的见解。

This research project will examine the processes underlying the origins and geography of language diversity in North America. Hundreds of languages are spoken on the continent besides English, French, and Spanish, and these languages are unevenly distributed, with far more diversity in some places than others. Although this language diversity is well documented and fundamentally affects how humans communicate, relatively little is known about the processes that have shaped the geographic patterns of language diversity. The investigators will refine a new simulation modeling approach to provide new understanding regarding the degree to which different social and environmental processes have influenced language diversity patterns over the last 10,000 years. The methods the project will use will provide new tools for larger-scale and longer-term contributions to the discovery of processes that influence multiple facets of cultural diversity across the planet. The investigators will map North American language diversity and produce an open-access resource for the researchers, educators, students, and the public. The project will further enhance an international and interdisciplinary network of researchers and will increase the utility of a global, open-access database created to enable studies of cultural and linguistic diversity. The project also will provide interdisciplinary education and training opportunities for a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students.Why do humans collectively speak so many languages, and why is the geographic distribution of these languages so uneven? Dating back centuries, researchers from many disciplines have debated the degree to which different sociocultural, environmental, and geographic factors have shaped linguistic diversity, but the few tests of these hypotheses have failed to reach consensus due to methodological limitations, including inadequacies in multivariate analytic approaches, the failure to account for non-independence of societies due to spatial proximity and common ancestry, and inadequate attention to complex webs of causal factors and to spatial and temporal dynamics of diversification and extinction. Previous research also has relied largely on correlation-based analyses, which imply only associations and cannot determine the mechanisms that lead to diversity patterns. The investigators undertaking this project have pioneered the use of process-based simulation modeling in biogeography to overcome the prior methodological limitations. They will build on experience gained during those activities to use recent modeling advances to conduct tests of long-standing and competing hypotheses from multiple disciplines regarding the geography of language diversity. Previous work employing this approach enhanced understanding of how rainfall and demography shaped language diversity patterns in Australia. By expanding their attention to North America, the investigators expect to provide new insights into the social, cultural, historical, and environmental processes that influence many facets of cultural diversity in different locales across the planet.