Survival of the fittest: Linguistic evolution in practice
Friday, December 9, 2011 - 03:03
in Psychology & Sociology
A new study of how compound word formation is influenced by subtle forms of linguistic pressure demonstrates that words which "sound better" to the speakers of a language have a higher chance of being created, suggesting that, like biological organisms, words are subject to selection pressures that play a role in deciding which words become part of a language over time.