Social Structure and Language Structure: the New Nomothetic Approach

Roberts, Seán G.; Winters, James

doi:10.2478/v10057-012-0008-6

Cited by 40 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…For example, the relationship between population size and morphological complexity (see above). This type of study can be valuable for testing hypotheses, generating hypotheses and acting as a catalyst for interdisciplinary work [14].…”

Section: Evaluating Nomothetic Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we suggest that nomothetic studies should be seen as hypothesis-generating tools that can work with and direct other methods such as idiographic studies, computational modelling, experiments and theoretical work [13], [14]. We also suggest some methods that might improve statistical inference and insight in nomothetic studies, including phylogenetic techniques and inferred causal graphs [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

2013

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The recent proliferation of digital databases of cultural and linguistic data, together with new statistical techniques becoming available has lead to a rise in so-called nomothetic studies [1]–[8]. These seek relationships between demographic variables and cultural traits from large, cross-cultural datasets. The insights from these studies are important for understanding how cultural traits evolve. While these studies are fascinating and are good at generating testable hypotheses, they may underestimate the probability of finding spurious correlations between cultural traits. Here we show that this kind of approach can find links between such unlikely cultural traits as traffic accidents, levels of extra-martial sex, political collectivism and linguistic diversity. This suggests that spurious correlations, due to historical descent, geographic diffusion or increased noise-to-signal ratios in large datasets, are much more likely than some studies admit. We suggest some criteria for the evaluation of nomothetic studies and some practical solutions to the problems. Since some of these studies are receiving media attention without a widespread understanding of the complexities of the issue, there is a risk that poorly controlled studies could affect policy. We hope to contribute towards a general skepticism for correlational studies by demonstrating the ease of finding apparently rigorous correlations between cultural traits. Despite this, we see well-controlled nomothetic studies as useful tools for the development of theories.

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Section: Evaluating Nomothetic Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

2013

Self Cite

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“…In some cases, reports of such relationships have been treated as interesting challenges for linguistics, and as potential catalysts for research questions (e.g. , Roberts & Winters 2012. In general, however, attempts to link language structure with extralinguistic factors are almost intrinsically suspect: The Boasian tradition (e.g., Boas 1931) insists that there are no "primitive" languages and emphasizes the suitability of all languages to their speakers' communicative needs; Whorfian ideas about the cognitive biases imposed by the native language are no longer widely credited (but see Carroll et al 2004, Levinson 2012; Chomskyans assume the existence of universal (and probably innate) structural principles; and the Saussurean foundation of all modern linguistics means that linguists take for granted the arbitrariness of linguistic form almost from the first day of their first introduction to the subject.…”

Section: Correlational Studies Involving Extralinguistic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlational Studies in Typological and Historical Linguistics

Ladd

Roberts

Dediu

2015

Annu. Rev. Linguist.

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We review a number of recent studies that have identified either correlations between different linguistic features (e.g., implicational universals) or correlations between linguistic features and nonlinguistic properties of speakers or their environment (e.g., effects of geography on vocabulary). We compare large-scale quantitative studies with more traditional theoretical and historical linguistic research and identify divergent assumptions and methods that have led linguists to be skeptical of correlational work. We also attempt to demystify statistical techniques and point out the importance of informed critiques of the validity of statistical approaches. Finally, we describe various methods used in recent correlational studies to deal with the fact that, because of contact and historical relatedness, individual languages in a sample rarely represent independent data points, and we show how these methods may allow us to explore linguistic prehistory to a greater time depth than is possible with orthodox comparative reconstruction. 221

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“…Some studies have explored how linguistic complexity is influenced by demographic variables, but the results remain contentious (Hay & Bauer, 2007;Lupyan & Dale, 2010;Moran, McCloy, & Wright, 2012;Roberts & Winters, 2012). To our knowledge, no studies have explored, from a cultural evolutionary perspective, how population size might influence cultural complexity in other non-technological domains, where the same intuitions about social learning might be expected to apply.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural complexity and demography: the case of folktales

Acerbi¹

2016

Preprint

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Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T2 Cultural complexity and demography: the case of folktales AbstractWe investigate the relationship between cultural complexity and population size in a nontechnological cultural domain for which we have suitable quantitative records: folktales. We define three levels of complexity for folk narratives: the number of tale types, the number of narrative motifs, and, finally, the number of traits in variants of the same type, for two well known tales for which we have data from previous studies. We found a positive relationship between number of tale types and population size, a negative relationship for the number of narrative motifs, and no relationship for the number of traits. The absence of a consistent relationship between population size and complexity in folktales provides a novel perspective on the current debates in cultural evolution. We propose that the link between cultural complexity and demography could be domain dependent: in some domains (e.g. technology)this link is important, whereas in others, such as folktales, complex traditions can be easily maintained in small populations as well as large ones, as they may appeal to universal cognitive biases.

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Social Structure and Language Structure: the New Nomothetic Approach

Cited by 40 publications

References 102 publications

Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

Linguistic Diversity and Traffic Accidents: Lessons from Statistical Studies of Cultural Traits

Correlational Studies in Typological and Historical Linguistics

Cultural complexity and demography: the case of folktales

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