A stochastic model of lexical change
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Published:1978-03
Issue:1
Volume:15
Page:38-45
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ISSN:0021-9002
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Container-title:Journal of Applied Probability
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Journal of Applied Probability
Author:
Dobson Annette J.
Abstract
A model is given to describe the concurrent evolution of vocabularies of different languages belonging to the same family. Lexical change involves the replacement of old words by new words acquired by inheritance, borrowing or some other form of innovation. This process is described by a set of simultaneous differential equations involving the probabilities that, at any time, languages share similar words for any particular meaning. Various special cases of the model are compared using data for some Indo-European languages.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty,General Mathematics,Statistics and Probability
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1. Lexicostatistics;Wiley StatsRef: Statistics Reference Online;2014-11-17
2. Lexicostatistics;Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences;2006-08-15