Simpler grammar, larger vocabulary: How population size affects language

Area of Science:

• Computational linguistics
• Evolutionary linguistics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Languages with more speakers are often structurally simpler, while small communities may develop complex languages.
• Non-structural language properties, like vocabulary size, show an inverse pattern, posing challenges for language evolution theories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factors driving the observed inverse patterns in language complexity and vocabulary size.
• To model how population structure and convention diffusion affect linguistic evolution.

Main Methods:

• Computational simulations using interacting agents on a network.
• Modeling the invention and replication of linguistic conventions (easy or hard to diffuse).
• Analyzing the maintenance of structural complexity versus vocabulary size in populations of varying sizes and connectivity.

Main Results:

• In large, interconnected populations, only easy-to-diffuse conventions (e.g., vocabulary) proliferate.
• Small, highly connected groups facilitate the maintenance of complex conventions (e.g., grammar).
• Ease of diffusion is a key factor explaining the inverse relationship between group size and linguistic complexity.

Conclusions:

• The ease of diffusion through a population can explain paradoxical patterns in language evolution.
• Increasing global interconnectedness may lead to structural simplification in language and culture.
• Linguistic complexity is shaped by the interplay of social structure and learning ease.