Towards a methodology of language evolution modelling: Comment on "Modelling language evolution: Examples and predictions" by Gong, Shuai and Zhang Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Gong et al present examples of agent- and equation-based models for investigating questions related to evolution of language. They demonstrate how to connect their models with real data: by comparing the agent-based model with real social networks and by comparing the equation-based model with real historic language data. Among other suggestions to improve computer models for language evolution, they discuss the importance of using real data to ...