Lexical Diffusion and Complex Adaptive System

抄録

Complexity is an inherently interdisciplinary concept that has penetrated a range of fields from physics to linguistics. Complex systems are made up of a large number of entities that by interacting locally with each other give rise to global properties that cannot be predicted or deduced from an even complete knowledge of the entities and of the rules governing their interactions. In many cases they are adaptive systems. Interesting principles have been proposed in an attempt to provide such an underlying, unified theory. These include selection, self-organization, scaling of the parameters, robustness, and networks of connections. In this study we show that lexical diffusion is the fundamental mechanism of language change, and it exhibits the underlying principles of complex adaptive system. First we discuss S-curve progress of language change, which is something like phase transition, and its snowball effect and relation to word frequency. Then we deal with linguistic selection, i.e., non-intentional functionally biased change and self-organization by language games, i.e., intentional, cooperative interactions of individuals in dynamic dialectology.