Population dynamics as a driving force of language change: results from a large-scale computer simulation
This paper presents a follow-up study to a previous simulation on scenarios of (future) language change of Spanish in New York City. We have conducted a much larger scale computer simulation – starting with 200,000 and reaching 850,000 agents, while implementing given linguistic (pronoun rates), and social data, and a usage-based approach. We have run three simulations, one with the actual immigration rates, one with lower (1/3), and one with higher (3x) rates. The results show: (i) Change in smaller-sized dialect groups can be simulated without instabilities, revealing the robustness of patterns of contact and change for smaller communities. (ii) Population dynamics is a major driving force of language change, unfolding its most visible effects in the 2nd and 3rd generation of heritage speakers. (iii) We can predict significant changes in the size of the different Spanish-speaking communities. Finally, the macro-perspective of population dynamics provides additional insight into communities of practice at the level of individual speakers.
