4 research outputs found
Competitive dynamics of lexical innovations in multi-layer networks
We study the introduction of lexical innovations into a community of language
users. Lexical innovations, i.e., new terms added to people's vocabulary, play
an important role in the process of language evolution. Nowadays, information
is spread through a variety of networks, including, among others, online and
offline social networks and the World Wide Web. The entire system, comprising
networks of different nature, can be represented as a multi-layer network. In
this context, lexical innovations diffusion occurs in a peculiar fashion. In
particular, a lexical innovation can undergo three different processes: its
original meaning is accepted; its meaning can be changed or misunderstood
(e.g., when not properly explained), hence more than one meaning can emerge in
the population; lastly, in the case of a loan word, it can be translated into
the population language (i.e., defining a new lexical innovation or using a
synonym) or into a dialect spoken by part of the population. Therefore, lexical
innovations cannot be considered simply as information. We develop a model for
analyzing this scenario using a multi-layer network comprising a social network
and a media network. The latter represents the set of all information systems
of a society, e.g., television, the World Wide Web and radio. Furthermore, we
identify temporal directed edges between the nodes of these two networks. In
particular, at each time step, nodes of the media network can be connected to
randomly chosen nodes of the social network and vice versa. In so doing,
information spreads through the whole system and people can share a lexical
innovation with their neighbors or, in the event they work as reporters, by
using media nodes. Lastly, we use the concept of "linguistic sign" to model
lexical innovations, showing its fundamental role in the study of these
dynamics. Many numerical simulations have been performed.Comment: 23 pages, 19 figures, 1 tabl
The Beneficial Role of Mobility for the Emergence of Innovation
Innovation is a key ingredient for the evolution of several systems, including social and biological ones. Focused investigations and lateral thinking may lead to innovation, as well as serendipity and other random discovery processes. Some individuals are talented at proposing innovation (say innovators), while others at deeply exploring proposed novelties, at getting further insights on a theory, or at developing products, services, and so on (say developers). This separation in terms of innovators and developers raises an issue of paramount importance: under which conditions a system is able to maintain innovators? According to a simple model, this work investigates the evolutionary dynamics that characterize the emergence of innovation. In particular, we consider a population of innovators and developers, in which agents form small groups whose composition is crucial for their payoff. The latter depends on the heterogeneity of the formed groups, on the amount of innovators they include, and on an award-factor that represents the policy of the system for promoting innovation. Under the hypothesis that a "mobility" effect may support the emergence of innovation, we compare the equilibria reached by our population in different cases. Results confirm the beneficial role of "mobility", and the emergence of further interesting phenomena
Multilayer Networks
In most natural and engineered systems, a set of entities interact with each
other in complicated patterns that can encompass multiple types of
relationships, change in time, and include other types of complications. Such
systems include multiple subsystems and layers of connectivity, and it is
important to take such "multilayer" features into account to try to improve our
understanding of complex systems. Consequently, it is necessary to generalize
"traditional" network theory by developing (and validating) a framework and
associated tools to study multilayer systems in a comprehensive fashion. The
origins of such efforts date back several decades and arose in multiple
disciplines, and now the study of multilayer networks has become one of the
most important directions in network science. In this paper, we discuss the
history of multilayer networks (and related concepts) and review the exploding
body of work on such networks. To unify the disparate terminology in the large
body of recent work, we discuss a general framework for multilayer networks,
construct a dictionary of terminology to relate the numerous existing concepts
to each other, and provide a thorough discussion that compares, contrasts, and
translates between related notions such as multilayer networks, multiplex
networks, interdependent networks, networks of networks, and many others. We
also survey and discuss existing data sets that can be represented as
multilayer networks. We review attempts to generalize single-layer-network
diagnostics to multilayer networks. We also discuss the rapidly expanding
research on multilayer-network models and notions like community structure,
connected components, tensor decompositions, and various types of dynamical
processes on multilayer networks. We conclude with a summary and an outlook.Comment: Working paper; 59 pages, 8 figure