README.md

---
title: E&C Model Interactive Platform
emoji: 🧠
colorFrom: indigo
colorTo: blue
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 5.49.1
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
---

# 🧠 E&C Model Interactive Platform  
### Entrenchment & Conventionalization Visual Demonstration

This Space provides an interactive visualization of **Hans-Jörg Schmid’s Entrenchment & Conventionalization (E&C) Model**, showing how **individual cognition (Entrenchment)** and **community diffusion (Conventionalization)** jointly shape linguistic behavior.

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# 🌟 Features

### 🔹 1. Single-Expression Analysis  
Enter any expression (e.g., *kind of*, *内卷*, *sort of*) to visualize:

- Entrenchment curve (E)  
- Conventionalization curve (C)  
- Frequency-driven curve transformation  
- Automatic linguistic explanation  
- Summary based on Schmid’s E&C theory  

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### 🔹 2. Two-Expression Comparison  
Compare two expressions:

- Overlaid Entrenchment curves  
- Overlaid Conventionalization curves  
- E-curve heatmap difference  
- Auto-generated expert interpretation  

This helps visualize how **usage frequency** affects cognitive automation and social adoption.

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# 📊 Visual Components

- Sigmoid-shaped Entrenchment curves  
- Logistic adoption curves for Conventionalization  
- Heatmap showing differential entrenchment  
- Clean card-style UI with gradient background  

> **Note**: The current version uses *mock frequencies* for stable execution.  
A real-corpus version (Wikipedia/BookCorpus/OSCAR) can be added later.

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# 📸 Screenshot (Optional)
Add your screenshot here in the future:

```
[ Insert Screenshot Here ]
```

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# 🎯 Purpose

This app is designed for:

- Cognitive linguistics courses  
- Usage-based grammar visualization  
- Pragmatics & discourse analysis  
- Translation studies  
- Educational presentations  
- Linguistic research demonstrations  

It shows how **usage → entrenchment → conventionalization → linguistic stability**.

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# 🛠️ Tech Stack

- Python  
- Gradio 3.x  
- Matplotlib  
- NumPy  
- Custom CSS  

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# 📁 File Structure

```
app.py              # Main Gradio application
requirements.txt    # Dependencies
README.md           # This documentation
```

(Optional future files)

```
data/
    word_freq.csv   # Optional: real corpus frequencies
```

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# 📘 Theory: E&C Model Overview

### **Entrenchment (E)** — Individual level  
- Increased automaticity through repeated use  
- Higher frequency → steeper curve  

### **Conventionalization (C)** — Community level  
- Social diffusion and shared acceptance  
- Faster rise → quicker normalization  

### **Dynamic Loop**  
According to Schmid:

> **Individual repetition strengthens social convention;  
> social convention increases repetition.**  

This feedback loop stabilizes linguistic structures.

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# 📚 Reference

Schmid, H.-J. (2020).  
**The Dynamics of the Linguistic System: Usage, Conventionalization, and Entrenchment.**  
Oxford University Press.

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# 🚀 Future Extensions

- Real-corpus frequency mode  
- Historical diffusion curves (Google Ngram)  
- Collostruction analysis  
- Semantic similarity comparison  
- Language evolution simulation  

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# ❤️ Acknowledgements

This tool was created for linguistic visualization, cognitive linguistics education, and research demonstration.  
Thank you for exploring the E&C Model Interactive Platform!