{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T18:14:03Z","timestamp":1788459243329,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":5,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Major Research Program of PSL Research University"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009517","name":"PSL Research University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ANR-10-IDEX-0001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-10-IDEX-0001"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009517","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009517","name":"PSL Research University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ANR-25-CE28-7755"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-25-CE28-7755"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009517","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Language change involves a complex interplay of selection and drift (or unbiased copying), shaping the popularity of words over time. This pre-registered study examines lexical evolution in the Ukrainian language using data from Slovotvir, a crowdsourcing platform where over 4,000 users proposed and ranked translations of foreign-origin words over 9 years. We rely on an agent-based model combined with novel generative inference methods to investigate the roles of frequency-dependent selection, selection for brevity, and random drift in shaping word popularity. Our results indicate that Slovotvir users exhibit a preference for shorter words, supporting Zipf\u2019s principle of least effort. However, the popularity of translations, which we approximate using likes on the platform, appears largely frequency-independent, suggesting that users do not disproportionately favor already popular words. However, this conclusion might be limited by the fact that our data consist of low-frequency neologisms that are still evolving in this population of speakers. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of language change by providing empirical evidence that selection for brevity, rather than frequency-dependent selection, drives lexical evolution in this grassroots language reform initiative, which reflects and shaped real-world language change.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/pnasnexus\/pgag258","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T17:25:40Z","timestamp":1788456340000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Slovotvir: Grassroots reform of the Ukrainian language reveals the role of drift and selection in language change"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4466-0639","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexey","family":"Koshevoy","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, ENS, CNRS, UMR 8554, PSL University , 29, rue d\u2019Ulm, Paris 75230 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