Language acquisition and implication for language change: A computational model.
Date
1997Author
Clark, Robert A J
Metadata
Abstract
Computer modeling techniques, when applied to language
acquisition problems, give an often unrealized
insight into the diachronic change that occurs in language
over successive generations. This paper shows
that using assumptions about language acquisition to
model successive generations of learners in a computer
simulation, can have a drastic effect on the long
term changes that occur in a language. More importantly,
it shows that slight changes in the acquisition
model can have drastic effects on language change.