TY - THES ID - 134738886 TI - Keeping up with the neighbours: an agent-based simulation of the divergence of the standard Dutch pronunciations in the Netherlands and Belgium AU - Sevenants, Anthe AU - Speelman, Dirk AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Letteren. Opleiding Master in de taalkunde (Leuven) PY - 2021 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Letteren DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134738886 AB - While the Netherlandic standard Dutch pronunciation norm around 1930 was still very much like the Belgian norm, it shifted considerably in the course of the 20th century (H. Van de Velde 1996; Van de Velde et al. 2010). In Belgium, no such evolution occurred, which caused the pronunciation of both language varieties to diverge. As of yet, there is no conclusive evidence as to why this divergence has happened. Because there is not enough data to investigate the divergence empirically, it is examined using an agent-based simulation model in Python. Though we cannot ‘prove’ that the mechanisms described in the theories from the literature actually happened in reality, we can test their plausibility by checking whether the effects described in the theories also appear in our model which attempts to mimic real-world circumstances. Four research questions based on theories found in the literature are tested: 1. Is it plausible that reduced contact between speakers from the Netherlands and Belgium resulted in a divergence between the standard pronunciations in both countries? 2. Is it possible that an increased pace of language change in Dutch speakers caused a divergence between the standard pronunciations of the Netherlands and Belgium? 3. Can we relate increased ethnocentrism in Belgian speakers to less adoption of Netherlandic innovations or even divergence? 4. Is it likely that increased media influence amplified the existing tendencies for language change (acceleration or inhibition) in Belgium? The results of the simulations are interpreted with the help of a linear regression model when possible. The results show that a lack of contact between both countries can indeed lead to divergence in the model, but only if abroad travel is at least 5000 times less likely than domestic travel. The pace of language change in the Netherlands does not have a sizeable impact on convergence or divergence tendencies in Belgium in the model, but it is very likely that these results are skewed as a result of too much contact between the two countries for pace to have an effect. High values for ethnocentrism in Belgian agents are able to lead to divergence in the model, as long as these high values are shared by the entire population. If ethnocentrism decreases along with how close agents live to the border, it has little effect. Media receptiveness in agents always kickstarts convergence in the model and it accelerates this convergence as well. Since media influence is implemented as a powerful force in the simulation, this result must be interpreted from the viewpoint of media having a sizeable impact on language change. Finally, the different aspects of the model are evaluated to provide other simulation researchers with an idea of what implementations are useful for linguistic simulation research. In addition, more computer simulations of the Belgian-Dutch language situation are considered. ER -