Language emergence is characterized by a high degree of lex- ical variation. It has been suggested that the speed at which lexical conventionalization occurs depends partially on social structure. In large communities, individuals receive input from many sources, creating a pressure for lexical convergence. In small, insular communities, individuals can remember id- iolects and share common ground with interlocuters, allow- ing these communities to retain a high degree of lexical vari- ation. We look at lexical variation in Kata Kolok, a sign lan- guage which emerged six generations ago in a Balinese vil- lage, where women tend to have more tightly-knit social net- works than men. We test if there are differing degrees of lexical uniformity between women and men by reanalyzing a picture description task in Kata Kolok. We find that women’s produc- tions exhibit less lexical uniformity than men’s. One possible explanation of this finding is that women’s more tightly-knit social networks allow for remembering idiolects, alleviating the pressure for lexical convergence, but social network data from the Kata Kolok community is needed to support this ex- planation
