This paper tries to narrow the gap between diachronic linguistics and research on population dynamics by presenting a mathematical model corroborating the notion that the cognitive mechanism of asymmetric priming can account for observable tendencies in language change. The asymmetric-priming hypothesis asserts that items with more substance are more likely to prime items with less substance than the reverse. Although these effects operate on a very short time scale (e.g. within an utterance) it has been argued that their long-term effect might be reductionist, unidirectional processes in language change. In this paper, we study a mathematical model of the interaction of linguistic items that differ in their formal substance, showing that, in addition to reductionist effects, asymmetric priming also results in diversification and stable coexistence of two formally related variants. The model will be applied to phenomena in the sublexical as well as the lexical domain.

本文试图通过提出一个数学模型来证实历时语言学与人口动力学研究之间的差距，该数学模型证实了非对称启动的认知机制可以解释语言变化趋势的观点。不对称启动假设假设与相反的情况相比，具有更多物质的项目更可能具有较少物质的项目。尽管这些效果在很短的时间范围内（例如在话语中）起作用，但已经有人认为它们的长期效果可能是语言改变中的还原论，单向过程。在本文中，我们研究了形式形式不同的语言项目之间相互作用的数学模型，结果表明，除了简化论的影响外，不对称启动还导致两个形式相关变体的多样化和稳定共存。该模型将应用于子词法领域以及词法领域中的现象。