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SUMMARY:Language Evolution in Spatial Domains\, and Statistical Physics - 
 James Burridge\, University of Portsmouth
DTSTART:20181101T140000Z
DTEND:20181101T150000Z
UID:TALK113449@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Bert Vaux
DESCRIPTION:Language is evolving everywhere\, all the time. As a result\, 
 people from different parts of a language area may use their language in q
 uite different ways. This geographical variation has often been visualized
  using “isoglosses”: lines marking the approximate geographical bounda
 ries of different linguistic features. In this talk I will introduce a sim
 ple mathematical model in which domains of distinctive language use emerge
  spontaneously\, with transition zones in between. I will show that domain
  boundaries (isoglosses) feel a form of surface tension and are also warpe
 d and moved by variations in population density\, allowing us to predict t
 he shapes of distinctive linguistic zones in different countries.  Much of
  this simplicity arises from a connection between linguistics and physics:
  isoglosses behave much like domain walls between different atomic orderin
 gs in certain magnetic or crystalline materials\, first studied by Ilya Li
 fshitz (a Russian Physicist) in 1962. I will then describe recent developm
 ents\, in which continuous space is replaced with an embedded network\, an
 d more realistic processes describing language dynamics are investigated.
LOCATION:Audit Room\, King's College
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