Title: The Road to Success: Assessing the Fate of Linguistic Innovations in Online Communities,
Abstract: 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.