The Road to Success: Assessing the Fate of Linguistic Innovations in Online Communities

2018/06/15 by Marco Del Tredici, Raquel Fernández, Del Tredici, Marco +1 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #Digital Communication and Language #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Language and cultural evolution #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.05838

openalex publication_date 2018/06/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

We investigate the birth and diffusion of lexical innovations in a large dataset of online social communities. We build on sociolinguistic theories and focus on the relation between the spread of a novel term and the social role of the individuals who use it, uncovering characteristics of innovators and adopters. Finally, we perform a prediction task that allows us to anticipate whether an innovation will successfully spread within a community.

Citations

• The Strength of Weak Ties
• Tracing the Use of Practices through Networks of Collaboration

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