Linguistic Diversity and Digitalization: An Ambivalent Relationship
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In this position paper, we argue that while digitalization amplifies biases towards only few languages dominating the linguistic landscape, modern language technology can help to mitigate language loss. We first elaborate on how the linguistic landscape in the digital and the non-digital sphere are distributionally different from each other in that the latter is strongly biased towards English, at the same time under-representing thousands of languages and the cultural knowledge that they encode. In a second step, we present results of qualitative interviews on individual linguistic experiences in the digital and the non-digital sphere that we have conducted in Québec, one of the provinces of Canada known for its linguistic diversity. These interviews highlight the potential that modern language technology have for safeguarding linguistic diversity. We conclude that the study of the impact of digitalization on the global linguistic landscape not only requires differential ways of measuring linguistic diversity but also a nuanced operationalization of digitalization.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.015 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.007 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.007 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".