Societies of strangers do not speak less complex languages
Science Advances • Vol/Iss. 9(33) • American Association for the Advancement of Science • • Published In • Pages: eadf7704 •
By Shcherbakova, Olena, Michaelis, Susanne Maria, Haynie, Hannah J., Passmore, Sam, Gast, Volker, Gray, Russell D. , Greenhill, Simon J. , Blasi, Damian E., Skirgård, Hedvig
Hypothesis
Grammatical complexity is predicted by language phylogeny and spatial contiguity.
Note
"The phylogenetic signal of fusion (λ = 0.97, <0.001) is stronger than that of informativity (λ = 0.85, <0.001). In other words, fusion and informativity scores are explained by the inheritance from a common ancestor and spatial diffusion among close neighbors."
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spatiophylogenetic modeling using a Bayesian phylogenetic framework | Supported | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Linguistic complexity - fusion | Dependent | Grammar, Linguistic Identification |
| Linguistic complexity - informativity | Dependent | Grammar, Linguistic Identification |
| Phylogenetic random effects | Independent | Linguistic Identification |