Speakers constantly learn language from the environment by sampling their linguistic input and adjusting their representations accordingly. Logically, people should attend more to the environment and adjust their behavior in accordance with it more the lower their success in the environment is. We test whether the learning of linguistic input follows this general principle in two studies: a corpus analysis of a TV game show, Jeopardy, and a laboratory task modeled after Go Fish. We show that lower (non-linguistic) success in the task modulates learning of and reliance on linguistic patterns in the environment. In Study 1, we find that poorer performance increases conformity with linguistic norms, as reflected by increased preference for frequent grammatical structures. In Study 2, which consists of a more interactive setting, poorer performance increases learning from the immediate social environment, as reflected by greater repetition of others’ grammatical structures. We propose that these results have implications for models of language production and language learning and for the propagation of language change. In particular, they suggest that linguistic changes might spread more quickly in times of crisis, or when the gap between more and less successful people is larger. The results might also suggest that innovations stem from successful individuals while their propagation would depend on relatively less successful individuals. We provide a few historical examples that are in line with the first suggested implication, namely, that the spread of linguistic changes is accelerated during difficult times, such as war time and an economic downturn.

中文翻译：

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200 美元的语言：环境中的成功影响语法对齐

说话者通过对他们的语言输入进行采样并相应地调整他们的表示，不断地从环境中学习语言。从逻辑上讲，人们应该更多地关注环境并根据环境调整自己的行为，他们在环境中的成功率越低。我们在两项研究中测试语言输入的学习是否遵循这一一般原则：电视游戏节目 Jeopardy 的语料库分析和模仿 Go Fish 的实验室任务。我们表明，任务中较低的（非语言）成功会调节环境中语言模式的学习和依赖。在研究 1 中，我们发现较差的表现会增加对语言规范的遵守，这反映在对频繁语法结构的偏好增加。在包含更具互动性的设置的研究 2 中，较差的表现会增加从直接社会环境中学习的能力，这体现在更多地重复他人的语法结构中。我们认为这些结果对语言产生和语言学习的模型以及语言变化的传播具有影响。他们特别指出，在危机时期，或者当成功者与失败者之间的差距更大时，语言变化可能会传播得更快。结果也可能表明，创新源于成功的个人，而其传播将取决于相对不太成功的个人。我们提供了一些历史例子，这些例子与第一个建议的含义一致，即语言变化的传播在困难时期加速，例如战争时期和经济衰退。