Conversational priming in repetitional responses as a mechanism in language change: evidence from agent-based modelling

Abstract In this article, we investigate if conversational priming in repetitional responses could be a factor in language change. In this mechanism, an interlocutor responds to an utterance by the other interactant using a repetitional response. Due to comprehension-to-production priming, the interlocutor producing the repetitional response is more likely to employ the same linguistic variant as the interlocutor producing the original utterance, resulting in a double exposure to the variant which, in turn, is assumed to reinforce the original priming effect, making the form more familiar to the repeating interlocutor. An agent-based model, with interactions shaped as conversations, shows that when conversational priming is added as a parameter, interlocutors converge faster on their linguistic choices than without conversational priming. Moreover, we find that when an innovative form is in some way favoured over another form (replicator selection), this convergence also leads to faster spread of innovations across a population. In a second simulation, we find that conversational priming is, under certain assumptions, able to overcome the conserving effect of frequency. Our work highlights the importance of including the conversation level in models of language change that link different timescales.