Language dynamics is an interdisciplinary field that studies the the evolution of languages in contact, and the variation and change of language features, both at the social level and within a historical perspective. To this aim, it employs concepts and methods of complex systems theory. While the initial studies focused on language shift and language use by means of theoretical models inspired by, e.g., ecological modelling, reaction-diffusion systems, social dynamics, or game-theory, in the last years language dynamics has had a multi-fold development.
On the one hand, competition, evolution, and spreading models have become more refined and realistic and underwent closer comparisons with real data; this provides the possibility to compare models with actual social linguistic scenarios in order to plan optimal linguistic strategies aimed either to make inter-linguistic communication easier and preserve the precious heritage of linguistic diversity.
On the other hand, it is now possible to build social media corpora, extending the study range of language variation and change into the field of big-data analysis; at the same time, the cognitive framework, already known for representing a crucial element in semiotic studies of language, has now become a new relevant dimension. The latter mentioned developments require the adoption and application of additional tools, such as Bayesian analysis and statistical learning techniques, that in turn enlarge the field of application of language dynamics (e.g., to the interactions of language with the evolution of scripts, learning processes, migrations, and economy) and connect it to studies on computational linguistics.
For these reasons, COMPILA 2022 aims at sharing ideas on the recent and possible future developments of language dynamics and would be interesting for researchers across several disciplines: sociolinguists, physicists, applied mathematicians and computer scientists.
Organizers: Marco Patriarca (NICPB, Tallin) and David Sánchez (IFISC, Mallorca)