INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL EFFECTS ON LINGUISTIC DIFFUSION

Using a Pólya urn based diffusion model, we examine linguistic diffusion in a population of individuals with different types of social networks. Simulation results and statistical analyses show that individual factors, such as who (speakers or hearers) introduce preference for certain types of variants, and network structural features, e.g., level of centrality, collectively modulate the degree of diffusion. This work shows different diffusion efficiencies of speaker's and hearer's preferences for variants, evaluates the effect of individual learning and social factors on linguistic diffusion, and modifies previous diffusion theories focusing exclusively on individual or social factors.