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Key research themes
1. How do social network structures and multilingual users influence language spread in online environments?
This research area investigates the role of social networks, especially in digital and social media contexts, in facilitating language variation, multilingual communication, and linguistic diffusion. It focuses on how individuals' integration in social networks, their multilingual language choices, and cross-linguistic mediation contribute to language spread in transnational communities online. Understanding these dynamics informs sociolinguistics and the design of social media platforms that support intercultural dialogue and the maintenance of linguistic diversity.
Key finding: Identified that linguistic variation correlates strongly with social network integration, characterized by structural features like network density and multiplexity, even beyond static social variables such as class or... Read more
Key finding: Introduced the interdisciplinary concept of ‘locale’ capturing socio-economic and technological parameters that influence asymmetries in interlanguage communication across digital platforms. The study revealed that economic... Read more
Key finding: Demonstrated that globalization-driven digitalization exponentially increases cross-cultural interactions and requires careful understanding of the dynamic relationship between language and culture. The study highlighted how... Read more
2. What mechanisms drive the expansion and diffusion of languages across geographic and social boundaries?
This theme explores the underlying processes by which languages expand territorially and spread across populations, focusing on different models of linguistic expansion (migration, continuity, diffusion) and the interplay between vertical inheritance and horizontal contact diffusion of linguistic features. Quantitative and typological analyses clarify how features like grammatical systems and vocabulary propagate through populations and contact zones, illuminating the complex dynamics shaping global linguistic diversity.
Key finding: Provided empirical evidence that global distributions of nominal categorization systems (grammatical gender, noun classes, classifiers) are shaped by two distinct pathways: vertical lineage expansion via population migration... Read more
Key finding: Reviewed and formalized three principal explanatory models of linguistic expansion—migration, continuity, and diffusion—highlighting their relevance to expansive languages like Uralic and Indo-European. The paper linked... Read more
Key finding: Developed a network coordination model showing that increasing returns to language size coexist with the persistence of many languages, contradicting simplistic consolidation hypotheses. Empirical data reveal that only very... Read more
3. How does globalization and digital communication impact language spread, identity, and intercultural communication?
Focusing on the socio-political, economic, and cultural dimensions of language spread in the age of globalization and digital media, this theme analyzes how global communication platforms facilitate linguistic expansion, introduce new challenges for language maintenance, influence identity formation, and restructure cross-cultural interactions. It pays special attention to the role of lingua francas like English and the balance between global connectivity and cultural- linguistic fragmentation.
Key finding: Established that global communication infrastructures are primary drivers of English language spread, influencing not only lexical but also grammatical transmission under globalization. The study revealed that while English’s... Read more
Key finding: Synthesized historical data from ancient to modern India to formalize universal principles of language spread in multilingual societies, introducing novel theoretical constructs like the Theory of Win-Win Propositions and... Read more
Key finding: Analyzed how the internet fosters vitality and spread of constructed languages (conlangs), both literary and auxiliary, by enabling virtual communities and new sociolinguistic dynamics. The study documents cases such as... Read more