24th Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies
Abstract Submission

4933. Simulating the emergence, rise and restriction of a language innovation: The case of the genitive apostrophe in German

Invited abstract in session Ethics and OR, Public Service and Societal Complexity, stream OR and Ethics, and Societal Perspectives.

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Markus Günther
Department of Business Administration and Economics, Bielefeld University
2. Tanja Ackermann
Bielefeld University
3. Marius Bartsch
Linguistics & Literary studies, Bielefeld University
4. Herbert Dawid
Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften/Volkswirtschaftslehre, Universität Bielefeld
5. Theresa Elbracht
Department of Business Administration and Economics, Bielefeld University
6. Christian Stummer
Department of Business Administration and Economics, Bielefeld University
7. Frederik Tolkmitt
Department of Business Administration and Economics, Bielefeld University

Abstract

When studying the historical development of languages, challenges such as limited and unevenly available data, uncertainty in reconstruction, and uncertainty in the effects of sociopolitical factors are encountered. Simulations offer a way to overcome some of these obstacles. Therefore, we present a corpus-informed agent-based simulation of the German genitive apostrophe, which enables us to contribute to theoretical discussions on influencing factors (e.g., stigmatization or contact with English) by generating and validating observed diffusion patterns over time.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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