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The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
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Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features
Henri Kauhanen1, Deepthi Gopal2, Tobias Galla3,4
1Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany. henri.kauhanen@uni-konstanz.de.
Science Advances
|February 1, 2021
Summary
Quantifying language evolution is difficult due to limited historical data. This study introduces a new method using geospatial data to measure linguistic change, revealing a "linguistic temperature" for features.
Area of Science:
- Computational Linguistics
- Historical Linguistics
- Geolinguistics
Background:
- Quantifying the speed of linguistic change is challenging due to sparse historical documentation.
- Traditional methods often rely on phylogenetic reconstruction, which can be limited.
- Understanding language evolution requires new analytical approaches.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a model-based approach for quantifying linguistic change.
- To introduce the concept of "linguistic temperature" as a measure of feature change propensity.
- To infer historical language evolution from present-day geospatial distributions.
Main Methods:
- Modeling language change as a stochastic process involving vertical descent, spatial interactions, and mutations.
- Analyzing present-day geospatial distributions of linguistic features.
- Developing a method to infer "linguistic temperature" without phylogenetic data.
Main Results:
- A novel method for quantifying linguistic change was developed.
- The concept of "linguistic temperature" was introduced and defined.
- Geospatial distributions were shown to contain measurable signatures of historical language evolution.
Conclusions:
- Language evolution leaves a detectable geospatial signature.
- Inferences about historical language dynamics can be made from current spatial data.
- This approach offers a new way to study language change without extensive longitudinal data.
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