XClose

UCL Psychology and Language Sciences

Home
Menu

Language & Cognition seminar - Dr Shiri Lev-Ari

18 November 2020, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

Language and Cogniiton Seminar series logo

Wednesday 18 November, 1-2pm. "Language from a social networks perspective", talk held online.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Cost

Free

Organiser

Gwen Brekelmans – Language & Cognition

Language from a social networks perspective

Language is created and used by networks of people. In this talk I will show how the structure of the community and the position of individuals in the community network can influence the type of language that the community creates, how well community members understand the language, and individuals’ role in spreading and changing the language. I will particularly focus on network size and show how the obstacles of interacting in larger groups can lead to the emergence of more robust systems and representations. Thus, larger communities develop more systematic languages, individuals with larger networks develop better and more robust communicative skills, but it is individuals with smaller networks who spread linguistic changes. Together the findings show that taking a networks perspective can shed new light on the source of cross linguistic differences and individual differences in linguistic skills.

About the Speaker

Dr Shiri Lev-Ari

Lecturer at Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London

More about Dr Shiri Lev-Ari