role of demographic dynamics and conflict in the population-area relationship for human languages人口在人口动力学和冲突关系的作用对人类语言.pdfVIP

Role of Demographic Dynamics and Conflict in the Population-Area Relationship for Human Languages 1 1¤ ´ 2 Susanna C. Manrubia *, Jacob B. Axelsen , Damian H. Zanette ´ ´ ´ 1 Centro de Astrobiologa, Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientıficas, Torrejon de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain, 2 Consejo ´ ´ Nacional de Investigaciones Cientficas y Tecnicas, Centro Atomico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina Abstract Many patterns displayed by the distribution of human linguistic groups are similar to the ecological organization described for biological species. It remains a challenge to identify simple and meaningful processes that describe these patterns. The population size distribution of human linguistic groups, for example, is well fitted by a log-normal distribution that may arise from stochastic demographic processes. As we show in this contribution, the distribution of the area size of home ranges of those groups also agrees with a log-normal function. Further, size and area are significantly correlated: the number of speakers p and the area a spanned by linguistic groups follow the allometric relation a !p z , with an exponent z varying accross different world regions. The empirical evidence presented leads to the hypothesis that the distributions of p and a, and their mutual dependence, rely on demographic dynamics and on the result of conflicts over territory due to