Adult Learning and Language Simplification

Abstract

Languages spoken in larger populations are relatively simple. A possible explanation for this is that languages with a greater number of speakers tend to also be those with higher proportions of non‐native speakers, who may simplify language during learning. We assess this explanation for the negative correlation between population size and linguistic complexity in three experiments, using artificial language learning techniques to investigate both the simplifications made by individual adult learners and the potential for such simplifications to influence group‐level language characteristics. In Experiment 1, we show that individual adult learners trained on a morphologically complex miniature language simplify its morphology. In Experiment 2, we explore how these simplifications may then propagate through subsequent learning. We use the languages produced by the participants of Experiment 1 as the input for a second set of learners, manipulating (a) the proportion of their input which is simplified and (b) the number of speakers they receive their input from. We find, contrary to expectations, that mixing the input from multiple speakers nullifies the simplifications introduced by individuals in Experiment 1; simplifications at the individual level do not result in simplification of the population's language. In Experiment 3, we focus on language use as a mechanism for simplification, exploring the consequences of the interaction between individuals differing in their linguistic competence (as native and non‐native speakers might). We find that speakers who acquire a more complex language than their partner simplify their language during interaction. We ultimately conclude that adult learning can result in languages spoken by more people having simpler morphology, but that idiosyncratic simplifications by non‐natives do not offer a complete explanation in themselves; accommodation—by comparatively competent non‐natives to less competent speakers, or by native speakers to non‐natives—may be a key linking mechanism.

Asymmetric accommodation during interaction leads to the regularisation of linguistic variants

“…This discussion of the challenges imposed by acquiring conditioned variation during interaction also highlights a mismatch between our experimental design and the cases of obligatorification that inspired it: namely, in the Old English case we discuss, use of the demonstrative was pragmatically-conditioned, rather than (as in our variable training languages) unconditioned. This seems to us a reasonable first step in demonstrating asymmetric accommodation, and in other work we find the same asymmetric accommodation effects when one member of a pair learns a system of lexically-conditioned (rather than unconditioned) variation (Atkinson, Smith, & Kirby, 2018). This provides at least one demonstration that asymmetric accommodation can lead to convergence on categorical systems at the expense even of conditioned systems of variation; it would of course be worthwhile to test whether there are any limits to this (e.g.…”

Linguistic system and sociolinguistic environment as competing factors in linguistic variation: A typological approach

“…In accommodation more competent speakers (native speakers and competent L2 speakers) produce simplifying adjustments, such as avoiding opacity, to less competent speakers and these adjustments are then adopted and transmitted to the next generation, leading eventually to language change. According to recent experimental research, the accommodation model may offer a key linking mechanism why, for instance, morphology is simplified if the language is learned by many L2 speakers (Atkinson et al 2018).…”

Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

“…Recently, the role of accommodation to novices in the cultural transmission of language has started to receive some attention in empirical (Atkinson, Smith & Kirby, 2018) and computational (Frank & Smith, 2018) research. This work shows that adult experts modify their language for the benefit of adult novices, and, thus, constitutes a simulation of foreigner-directed rather than child-directed speech.…”