# The Road to Success: Assessing the Fate of Linguistic Innovations in Online Communities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.05838 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05838/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 15 Jun 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Characterizing English Variation across Social Media Communities with BERT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.06820/) (2021)
- [ValueScope: Unveiling Implicit Norms and Values via Return Potential Model of Social Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02472/) (2024)
- [The structure of online social networks modulates the rate of lexical change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.05010/) (2021)
- [Modeling Users and Online Communities for Abuse Detection: A Position on Ethics and Explainability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.17191/) (2021)
- [Tracing Semantic Variation in Slang](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08635/) (2022)
- [Inducing lexicons of in-group language with socio-temporal context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.19257/) (2024)
- [Word reuse and combination support efficient communication of emerging concepts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.05379/) (2024)
- [Detecting Turkish Synonyms Used in Different Time Periods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15768/) (2024)
- [From Utterances to Networks: Modelling Slang Adoption and Diffusion Across Subreddits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.25669/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We investigate the birth and diffusion of lexical innovations in a large dataset of online social communities. We build on sociolinguistic theories and focus on the relation between the spread of a novel term and the social role of the individuals who use it, uncovering characteristics of innovators and adopters. Finally, we perform a prediction task that allows us to anticipate whether an innovation will successfully spread within a community.