Social Simulation Based on Cellular Automata: Modeling Language Shifts

Nowadays, language shifts (i.e., a community of speakers stops using their traditional language and speaks a new one in all communication settings) may produce a massive extinction of languages throughout the world. In this context, an important task for social sciences research should therefore be to achieve a deep comprehension of language shifts. However, modeling the social and behavioral variables that guide the social behavior of individuals and groups has traditionally been tricky in all the social sciences. In this situation, social simulation provides a tool for testing hypotheses and building models of social phenomena (see, for example, Gilbert, 1996; Gilbert & Toitzsch, 2005; and Goldspink, 2002), especially the techniques based on cellular automata theory (Hegselmann, 1996; Hegselman & Flache, 1998; Nowak & Lewenstein, 1996). According to this framewok, we introduce the properties of a cellular automaton that incorporates some assumptions from the Gaelic-Arvanitika model of language shifts (Sasse, 1992) and the findings on the dynamics of social impacts in the field of social psychology (Latané, 1981; Nowak et al. 1990). Thus, we define a cellular automaton and carry out a set of simulations in which it is used. We incorporate empirical data from recent sociolinguistic studies in Catalonia (a region in Southern Europe) to run the automaton under different scenarios. The results allow us to highlight some of the main factors involved in a language shift. Finally, we also discuss how the social simulation based on cellular automata theory approach proves to be a useful tool for understanding language shifts.