What happens to language as populations grow?

Languages with lots of speakers, such as English and Mandarin, have large vocabularies with relatively simple grammar. Yet the opposite is also true: 【小题1】

A Cormell University cognitive scientist and his colleagues have shown that ease of learning may explain why the number of speakers has opposite effects on vocabulary and grammar. “We were able to show that whether something is easy to learn — like words or hard to learn — like complex grammar — can explain these opposing tendencies,” said co-author Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology at Cornell University and co-director of the Cognitive Science Program.

The researchers supposed that words are easier to learn than aspects of grammar.“You only need a few exposures to a word to learn it, so it’s easier for words to spread,” he said. 【小题2】 And that’s going to happen more readily in a smaller speech community, because each person is likely to interact with a large proportion of the community, he said.“If you have to have multiple exposures to, say, a complex grammar rule, in smaller communities it’s easier for it to spread and be maintained in the population.”

However, in a large community, like a big city, one person will talk only to a small proportion of the population. 【小题3】

The simulations suggest that language, and possibly other aspects of culture, may become simpler as our world becomes increasingly interconnected, Christiansen said. “【小题4】 But perhaps the mainstream parts will become simpler over time.”

Not all hope is lost for those who want to maintain complex cultural traditions, he said: “People can self-organize into smaller communities to counteract that drive toward simplification.”