Variation Rolls the Dice

This chapter adopts Mufwene’s (2001) framework according to which language acquisition is a process whereby competition and selection of linguistic features from the inputs create a unique idiolect. It examines the principles of selection of a given feature over others, and the mechanisms by which a feature spreads across a community (i.e., from one idiolect to another). These questions are addressed at the individual and population levels by analysing data from a twitter corpus. The frequency o