Modeling the life and death of competing languages from a physical and mathematical perspective

Recent contributions address the problem of language coexistence as that of two species competing to aggregate speakers, thus focusing on the dynamics of linguistic traits across populations. They draw inspiration from physics and biology and share some underlying ideas -- e. g. the search for minimal schemes to explain complex situations or the notion that languages are extant entities in a societal context and, accordingly, that objective, mathematical laws emerge driving the aforementioned dynamics. Different proposals pay attention to distinct aspects of such systems: Some of them emphasize the distribution of the population in geographical space, others research exhaustively the role of bilinguals in idealized situations (e. g. isolated populations), and yet others rely extremely on equations taken unchanged from physics or biology and whose parameters bear actual geometrical meaning. Despite the sources of these models -- so unrelated to linguistics -- sound results begin to surface that establish conditions and make testable predictions regarding language survival within populations of speakers, with a decisive role reserved to bilingualism. Here we review the most recent works and their interesting outcomes stressing their physical theoretical basis, and discuss the relevance and meaning of the abstract mathematical findings for real-life situations.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. Fifth chapter of the book Bilingualism and Minority Languages in Europe: Current trends and developments by F. Lauchlan, M. C. Parafita Couto, ed

Is the coexistence of Catalan and Spanish possible in Catalonia?

We study the stability of Catalan and Spanish coexistence in Catalonia, a key political and economic European region. Recent, abundant empirical data of language use is analyzed within an analytic model of population dynamics. This model contemplates the possibilities of both long-term language coexistence and decline. The data needs to be interpreted under different circumstances. The most likely scenario, we find, is a sustained coexistence. Extreme cases still lead to the decline of one of the tongues–we delimit when this can happen. Asymptotic behavior is often an unreliable predictor in complex social systems; we make an attempt at forecasting fractions of speakers towards 2030. These also suggest sustained coexistence, but some counterintuitive dynamics are unveiled. Model parameters estimated from the data convey relevant information about the prestige and interlinguistic similarity of both tongues. We quantify these parameters rigorously for these languages for the first time. Remarkably, Spanish is found to have a larger prestige in areas which historically had larger Catalan monolingual communities. With limited, spatially-segregated data we examine more fine grained dynamics, thus better addressing the likely outcomes. Differences in model parameters across regions reveal how the two languages are perceived in more urban or rural environmentsThis work was partially funded by the Galician Royal Academy (Real Academia Galega)S

The Russian language in a non-Slavic environment: A model of language competition in regions of close language contact

Вопрос конкурирования двух языков является одним из наиболее актуальных в регионах тесного языкового контактирования. Исследование данного вопроса позволяет предсказать утрату билингвами миноритарного языка и, как следствие, предотвратить окончательный переход к монолингвизму, способствуя сохранению двуязычного сообщества. Анализируются существующие модели языковой конкуренции и предлагается собственная оценка предикторов динамики языковой конкуренции с учетом специфики языковой ситуации, характерной для тюркско-русского билингвизма Южной Сибири. В качестве предикторов выбраны социодемографические, в том числе институциональные, и социокультурные факторы, а также группа мотивационных факторов. Моделирование производилось на материале базы данных тюркско-русского билингвизма («Социолингвистическая БД RuTurkSocLing: оценки языкового и социального опыта тюркско-русских билингвов»), включающего три группы языкового взаимодействия: татарско-русское, шорско-русское и хакасско- русское. Всего в базе данных содержится 25 145 наблюдений, полученных от 235 билингвов. Предложенная модель и полученные результаты показывают, что языковая конкуренция обеспечивается взаимно направленным процессами. Так, наиболее влиятельными факторами, обеспечивающими высокое владение билингвами родным миноритарным языком и, следовательно, балансирующими языковую ситуацию в условиях языковой конкуренции, являются социодемографические: опыт дошкольного проживания (в селе или в городе) и место проживания в настоящее время. При этом возраст информантов оказывается незначимым, так же как и группа социокультурных факторов (язык обрядов и песен). Мотивационные прагматические факторы, наоборот, приводят к формированию несбалансированной билингвальной ситуации, снижая функциональную нагрузку миноритарного языка. Билингвы подчеркивают, что их собственная интенция использовать русский язык выше, чем интенция к использованию. Таким образом, наибольшее значение для балансирования билингвальной ситуации имеют группа демографических факторов и мотивационная сфера билингва

Language extinction and linguistic fronts

Language diversity has become greatly endangered in the past centuries owing to processes of language shift from indigenous languages to other languages that are seen as socially and economically more advantageous, resulting in the death or doom of minority languages. In this paper, we define a new language competition model that can describe the historical decline of minority languages in competition with more advantageous languages. We then implement this non-spatial model as an interaction term in a reaction-diffusion system to model the evolution of the two competing languages. We use the results to estimate the speed at which the more advantageous language spreads geographically, resulting in the shrinkage of the area of dominance of the minority language. We compare the results from our model with the observed retreat in the area of influence of the Welsh language in the UK, obtaining a good agreement between the model and the observed data

Error-based interlinguistic comparisons as a learner-centred technique of teaching English grammar to Arab students

English is taught as a compulsory subject in generaleducation and some higher education institutions in Sudan.Students are totally dependent on the five to six hours perweek of language input provided through formal classroominstruction. Besides limited exposure to the language, thereare other factors confounding the teaching and learning ofEnglish such as large classes, lack of books, untrainedteachers, examination _orientedteaching and learning, andteaching grammarians' grammar. Such factors have contributedto the decline of standards in English to the extent that thepass mark in English has been reduced to 30 percent in thesecondary school certificate examination. The students'interlanguage exhibits features indicating heavy reliance onliteral translation from Arabic. At least 50% of theirerrors could be attributed to this interlinguistic transfer,a strategy which is frequently employed due to the lack ofthe requisite knowledge of the target language.Of all the detrimental factors, the teaching of grammarseems to be the one that is most directly related to thedeterioration of the standard in English. It usually takesthe form of giving rules, facts and explanations couched inmetalinguistic terms, which is at variance with the learners'hypotheses formation process. Reciting rules and factsabout the language is the only one thing that untrainedteachers can do. Trained teachers also resort to givingrules and facts due to the fact that the situation in theschools and universities is not conducive to developing thelanguage as a skill.Based on the fact that the effectiveness of foreignlanguage teaching in general and the teaching of grammar inparticular is greatly reduced when the focus is on givingrules and complicated grammatical analysis, it is the purposeof this study to explore the possibility that the teaching ofgrammar could profitably be based on the findings of recentstudies on interlanguage and learning strategies. The studyfocusses on the interlinguistic transfer strategy throughtranslation errors in an attempt to arrive at a learnercentredtechnique of teaching grammar. Based on the analysisof errors, providing students with simple contrastivecomparisons between the native and the target language wasarticipated to be more effective than giving them abstractrules and metalinguistic explanations. The study provides empirical data verifying theeffectiveness of simple interlinguistic comparisons inminimizing translation errors. An experiment was conductedin eight secondary schools and the University of Gezira inWad Medani, Sudan. A total of 714 male and female Arabicspeakingstudents were pretested, matched and divided intotwo equal groups in each school. Based on the results oferror analysis, two lessons, one normal and one experimental,were developed to teach the relative clauses in English. Thenormal lesson followed the traditional format of examples,rules and explanations couched in metalinguistic terms. Theexperimental lesson included terminology-free comparisons ofrelative clauses in English and Arabic. The two groups weretaught by the same teacher in each school and the university.The same pretest was administered as a post-test. Thematched group t test was used to compare the means of theactive object relative clauses correctly produced by the twogroups in each school. A significant difference was observedbetween the two groups. The experimental group performedbetter than the normal group. The t values were 6.387(df=83), 3.240 (df=54), 1.969 (df=29), 1.758 (df=28), 3.043(df=41), 4.586 (df=35), 2.651 (df=23), 3.030 (df=14), and3.747 (df=41). The probability that the difference was dueto chance was less than 5% in all cases. The findingssupported the hypothesis that the error-based interlinguisticcomparisons techniques would be more efficient than thecurrently used traditional technique in minimizing negativetransfer errors. The implications of the findings on theteaching of grammar, error correction, materials developmentand teacher training are discussed together with thelimitations of the study and the need for further research toconfirm the findings before they can be generalized

Knowledge sharing in multinational organizations : the impact of language

Knowledge sharing is a key collaborative activity that plays a significant role in organizational learning and performance. Knowledge sharing between organizational employees is important, not only for running basic administrative tasks, but also for major and critical organizational activities such as development and execution of organizational strategies meant to develop a competitive advantage in the market. The 21st century has seen a rise in multilingual workforces. Globalization, immigration and organizational international business dealings have rendered many organizations linguistically diverse. However, we do not find much research on information and knowledge sharing in multilingual work contexts. This study tries to fill this research gap and investigates the influence of language on knowledge sharing in multilingual organizations. To understand the concept of language and its influence on knowledge sharing, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, the theoretical framework is built on insights from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and knowledge management. This analysis is specifically focused on determining the relationship between linguistic association and interpersonal knowledge networks, and language practices and knowledgesharing interactions. Overall, the dissertation is comprised of four articles, each pair of articles answers one sub-question. Using a multiple method approach, both, quantitative and qualitative investigations were conducted in a large Finnish multinational organization that has subsidiaries in more than 70 countries around the world. A survey containing 403 usable responses was analyzed using regression analysis and one-way ANOVA to understand the effect of linguistic association on interpersonal knowledge networks. In addition, 21 in-depth interviews were conducted with employees from different subsidiaries. These interviews were analyzed using inductive logic to understand the influence of language practices on knowledge-sharing interactions. Analysis of the data shows that language influences both the development of knowledge networks and knowledge-sharing interactions between employees. Regarding knowledge networks, it was found that multilingual organizations have a language hierarchy in terms of access to information. Employees who speak the parent-company’s language do not build knowledgesharing connections with those who belong to a different language community. As most of the important positions in the organization are held by its homecountry nationals, an employee’s capability to speak their language provides him/her the opportunity to build a relationship with them and consequently gain access to critical information, which, in turn, lower his/her motivation to connect and share knowledge with others. Moreover, it was found that language diversity in personal knowledge networks positively correlates with employee performance. In other words, employees with highly multilingual personal knowledge networks perform better than those with monolingual personal knowledge networks. In terms of knowledge-sharing interactions between linguistically diverse employees, a major finding was that knowledge sharing interactions conducted in a non-native language differ from those conducted in a native language. It was found that employees adopt three different strategies to deal with problems in the knowledge-sharing process caused using a non-native language. These strategies – namely, discourse adjustment, language adjustment and media adjustment – play an important role in the successful exchange of knowledge between linguistically diverse individuals. Due to high awareness of linguistic differences, knowledge-sharing participants put in extra effort during interactions, leading to positive knowledge-sharing outcomes, which means linguistic differences can sometimes be helpful in knowledge-sharing contexts. This study contributes to existing research by adopting a comprehensive view of the relationship between language and knowledge sharing. It focuses not only on the impact of language on the development of knowledge networks, but also on the influence of language differences on the process of knowledge sharing that is knowledge-sharing interactions.Kunskapsdelning en är en nyckelaktivitet som spelar en signifikant roll för organisationens lärande och prestation. Kunskapsdelningen mellan medarbetarna är ytterst viktigt, inte bara för att hantera administrativa uppgifter, men även som förutsättning för de mest kritiska aktiviteterna såsom utvecklingen och verkställandet av strategier för att uppnå konkurrensfördel på marknaden. Under tjugohundratalet har andelen flerspråkig arbetskraft i organisationer ökat. Globalisering, immigration och internationell affärsverksamhet har förändrat många organisationer till arbetsplatser med språkligt mångfald. Trots detta finns det få undersökningar om informationsoch kunskapsdelningen i flerspråkiga arbetssammanhang. Genom att studera språkets inflytande på kunskapsdelningen i mångspråkiga organisationer bidrar denna avhandling till att fylla denna forskningslucka. För att bättre förstå begreppet språk och dess inflytande på kunskapsdelningen införs i denna forskning ett tvärvetenskapligt angreppssätt. Den teoretiska referensramen är därför uppbyggd på forskning inom sociolingvistik, lingvistisk antropologi och kunskapsledning (knowledge management). Analysen fokuserar speciellt på att bestämma relationen mellan språkbruk och interpersonella kunskapsnätverk samt språkpraktiker och växelverkan i kunskapsdelning. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar som besvarar frågorna kring dessa relationer. Genom att använda en multimetodisk ansats genomfördes både kvantitativa och kvalitativa studier inom ett stort finländskt multinationellt företag med dotterbolag i över 70 olika länder. En enkätundersökning som besvarades av 403 respondenter analyserades med regressionsanalys och enkelriktad ANOVA för att förstå inverkan av språkbruk på interpersonella kunskapsnätverk. Därtill djupintervjuades 21 medarbetade vid olika dotterbolag. Dessa intervjuer analyserades genom induktiv logik för att förstå hur språkpraktiker påverkar växelverkan i kunskapsdelningen. Analyserna visar att språket påverkar både utvecklingen av kunskapsnätverk och växelverkan i kunskapsdelningen mellan de anställda. Beträffande kunskapsnätverken visar resultaten att det existerar en språkhierarki i flerspråkiga organisationer när det gäller tillgången till information. Medarbetare som talar moderbolagets språk bygger inte upp relationer som främjar kunskapsdelningen med de anställda som tillhör en annan språkgemenskap. Eftersom den största delen av organisationens viktiga befattningar handhas av finsk- eller svenskspråkiga medarbetare, ger de anställdas kunskaper i dessa språk dem möjligheten att växelverka med dessa och därför få tillgång till viktig information, vilket i sin tur kan minska deras motivation att ta kontakt och dela kunskap med andra. Därtill visar resultaten att språklig mångfald i personliga kunskapsnätverk korrelerar positivt med medarbetarnas prestation. Med andra ord, anställda med mångspråkiga personliga kunskapsnätverk presterar bättre än de med enspråkiga personliga kunskapsnätverk. När det gäller växelverkan i kunskapsfördelningen mellan medarbetare som talar olika språk visar resultaten att växelverkan på ett främmande språk avviker från växelverkan på modersmålet. Resultaten i denna avhandling visar på tre olika strategier som de anställda tillämpar när de möter problem orsakade av användningen av ett främmande språk i kunskapsdelningsprocesser. Dessa strategier, det vill säga anpassningen av diskursen, anpassningen av språket och anpassningen av mediet, spelar en viktig roll i en lyckad kunskapsdelning mellan individer som talar olika språk. Eftersom individerna i kunskapsdelningsprocesserna var ytterst medvetna om språkskillnaderna ansträngde de sig att lyckas i dessa processer, vilket ledde till positiva resultat. Detta innebär att språkliga skillnader ibland kan främja kunskapsdelningen. Denna avhandling bidrar till den existerande forskningen genom att mångsidigt granska relationen mellan språk och kunskapsdelning. Den fokuserar inte enbart på språkets inverkan på utvecklingen av kunskapsnätverk, men även på hur språkskillnaderna påverkar samspelet i kunskapsdelningen