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Emergence of acronyms in a community of language users

Author

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  • Marco Alberto Javarone
  • Giuliano Armano

Abstract

Language is a complex system that evolves over time, due to several phenomena. In recent years, new communication media are affecting interpersonal written communication. In particular, mobile phones and internet-based communication media are leading people to use a small number of characters when writing messages. Hence, acronyms or abbreviations are used in most cases. In particular, a mobile phone message is usually composed by short phrases, the social network Twitter only allows 140 characters per message and in many online forums users have limited space for questions and answers. Although the use of acronyms dates back to ancient times, nowadays this type of linguistic sign is gaining prestige. In this work, we study the introduction of acronyms in social systems. In particular, we define a simple game for the purpose of analyzing how the use of an acronym spreads in a population, considering its ability to create a shared meaning. We performed many numerical simulations according to the proposed model, showing the creation of acronyms to be the result of collective dynamics in a population. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Alberto Javarone & Giuliano Armano, 2013. "Emergence of acronyms in a community of language users," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 86(11), pages 1-9, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurphb:v:86:y:2013:i:11:p:1-9:10.1140/epjb/e2013-40662-5
    DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2013-40662-5
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    Cited by:

    1. Lucas Wardil & Marco Antonio Amaral, 2017. "Cooperation in Public Goods Games: Stay, But Not for Too Long," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, August.
    2. Serge Galam & Marco Alberto Javarone, 2016. "Modeling Radicalization Phenomena in Heterogeneous Populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, May.

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    Keywords

    Statistical and Nonlinear Physics;

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