  Exemplar models are a popular class of models used to describe language
change. Here we study how limiting the memory capacity of an individual in
these models affects the system's behaviour. In particular we demonstrate the
effect this change has on the extinction of categories. Previous work in
exemplar dynamics has not addressed this question. In order to investigate
this, we will inspect a simplified exemplar model. We will prove for the
simplified model that all the sound categories but one will always become
extinct, whether memory storage is limited or not. However, computer
simulations show that changing the number of stored memories alters how fast
categories become extinct.

Computation and Language