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Conventions and Change in Semantics

Sbardolini, Giorgio
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555334547254546

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Linguistics.
Meanings are in some sense conventional, but they change over time. If conventions of meaning are game-theoretic equilibria of signaling games, a diachronic study of meaning can be formulated in full generality by investigating how equilibria changeover time. Lewisian conventions, whether from a rational choice perspective or from an evolutionary perspective, are too resistant to change: conformity among coordinators drives a population to equilibrium, establishing (semantic) order spontaneously. Some variation may be introduced within Lewis’s framework by allowing for randomly occurring learning mistakes. However, there is a class of phenomena, characterized as semantic social change, on which conventions of meaning undergo change not by chance,but because of shifts in the attitudes of language users. Because of the agents’ ever-changing practical goals, new linguistic policies may be adopted. This is a central force driving semantic change, albeit somewhat overlooked: semantic social change is a reflection of social change that becomes visible in the lexicon.In order to account for semantic social change, dynamic conventions may be defined, as a temporal generalization of Lewisian conventions. Agents who synchronically behave as coordinators, are diachronically in conflict with each others. A population of speakers is divided in different groups, or profiles, determined by different pratices and goals. In particular, despite the existence of a Lewisian convention about the meaning of a word, a small group of innovators might appear, who start a new convention for its use. The new convention may then spread to the rest of the population, provided the innovators are in a position to exercise enough societal pressure on linguistic peers who belong to their social network, to force them to comply. On the resulting model, linguistic agents are playing a game of conflict, in which the balance of competing forces moves a community of speakers from an equilibrium to the next.
Craige Roberts (Advisor)
61 p.
Linguistics; Philosophy; Sociolinguistics
Conventions; Social Norms; Meaning; Semantics; Emergence; Diachronic Semantics; Historical Linguistics; Language Change; Social Change, Sociolinguistics; Pragmatics; Game theory;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sbardolini, G. (2019). Conventions and Change in Semantics [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555334547254546

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sbardolini, Giorgio. Conventions and Change in Semantics. 2019. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555334547254546.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sbardolini, Giorgio. "Conventions and Change in Semantics." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555334547254546

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1555334547254546
918
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.