Connectivity, Not Frequency, Determines the Fate of a Morpheme

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97039
  • Morphemes are the smallest meaningful parts of words and therefore represent a natural unit to study the evolution of words. To analyze the influence of language change on morphemes, we performed a large scale analysis of German and English vocabulary covering the last 200 years. Using a network approach from bioinformatics, we examined the historical dynamics of morphemes, the fixation of new morphemes and the emergence of words containing existing morphemes. We found that these processes are driven mainly by the number of different directMorphemes are the smallest meaningful parts of words and therefore represent a natural unit to study the evolution of words. To analyze the influence of language change on morphemes, we performed a large scale analysis of German and English vocabulary covering the last 200 years. Using a network approach from bioinformatics, we examined the historical dynamics of morphemes, the fixation of new morphemes and the emergence of words containing existing morphemes. We found that these processes are driven mainly by the number of different direct neighbors of a morpheme in words (connectivity, an equivalent to family size or type frequency) and not its frequency of usage (equivalent to token frequency). This contrasts words, whose survival is determined by their frequency of usage. We therefore identified features of morphemes which are not dictated by the statistical properties of words. As morphemes are also relevant for the mental representation of words, this result might enable establishing a link between an individual’s perception of language and historical language change.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Jörg Schultz, Daniela Barbara Keller
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97039
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Fakultät für Biologie / Theodor-Boveri-Institut für Biowissenschaften
Language:English
Parent Title (English):PLoS ONE
Year of Completion:2013
Source:In: PLoS ONE (2013) 8: 7, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069945
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069945
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Tag:confidence intervals; culture; evolutionary biology; language; lexicography; linguistic morphology; network analysis; psycholinguistics
Release Date:2014/05/06
Collections:Open-Access-Publikationsfonds / Förderzeitraum 2013
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung