Paulo Murilo Castro de Oliveira
2008
Journal of Linguistics 44(3):659-675, 2008
This paper presents computer simulations of language populations and the development of language families, showing how a simple model can lead to distributions similar to those observed empirically by Wichmann (2005) and others. The model combines features of two models used in ...MORE ⇓
This paper presents computer simulations of language populations and the development of language families, showing how a simple model can lead to distributions similar to those observed empirically by Wichmann (2005) and others. The model combines features of two models used in earlier work for the simulation of competition among languages: the `Viviane' model for the migration of peoples and the propagation of languages, and the `Schulze' model, which uses bit-strings as a way of characterising structural features of languages.