One limitation of corpus-based research into the epicentre hypothesis is that it only provides information on structural similarity/difference of varieties but not on the role that attitudes may play in the choice of variants in a pluricentric language. In our case study on verb complementation patterns, we use simulation as a complementary methodology. We build an agent-based model for two speaker communities with English as a second language (ESL) which allows for attitudes towards American and British English to affect the choice of verb complementation. This approach enables us to gauge the likely effect that attitudes towards potential epicentres might have on the choice of variants and to predict patterns of variation we should see in language use. We provide preliminary data from the News On the Web corpus to test whether the predictions are, in fact, borne out.

中文翻译：

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通过基于代理的建模产生震中影响

基于语料库的震中假说研究的一个限制是它只提供关于变体结构相似性/差异的信息，而不是关于态度在选择多中心语言变体中可能发挥的作用的信息。在我们关于动词补充模式的案例研究中，我们使用模拟作为补充方法。我们为两个以英语作为第二语言 (ESL) 的说话者社区建立了一个基于代理的模型，该模型允许对美国和英国英语的态度影响动词补语的选择。这种方法使我们能够衡量对潜在震中的态度可能对变体选择产生的影响，并预测我们应该在语言使用中看到的变化模式。我们提供来自网络新闻的初步数据语料库来测试预测是否真的得到证实。