Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33523866›Full record

ArticleScience advances2021

Geospatial distributions reflect temperatures of linguistic features.

Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla, Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Henri KauhanenZukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz, Germany. henri.kauhanen@uni-konstanz.de.ORCID 0000-0002-6743-5100
Deepthi GopalDepartment of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK.
Tobias GallaDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, School of Natural Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-3402-2163
Ricardo Bermúdez-OteroDepartment of Linguistics and English Language, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2630-5518

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Quantifying the speed of linguistic change is challenging because the historical evolution of languages is sparsely documented. Consequently, traditional methods rely on phylogenetic reconstruction. Here, we propose a model-based approach to the problem through the analysis of language change as a stochastic process combining vertical descent, spatial interactions, and mutations in both dimensions. A notion of linguistic temperature emerges naturally from this analysis as a dimensionless measure of the propensity of a linguistic feature to undergo change. We demonstrate how temperatures of linguistic features can be inferred from their present-day geospatial distributions, without recourse to information about their phylogenies. Thus, the evolutionary dynamics of language, operating across thousands of years, leave a measurable geospatial signature. This signature licenses inferences about the historical evolution of languages even in the absence of longitudinal data.

Identifiers

PMID33523866
PMCPMC7775759

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.