Introduction. Usage-based models of language, under which mental representations are
phonetically rich clouds of stored memories, have been gaining currency in sociolinguistic
research (see Hinskens et al., 2014 for a recent review). These theories propose that a
speaker's language production is shaped by the input (s) he receives over time, and
specifically that the stored memories of more frequently heard words will be updated more
often. Such theories have an obvious connection to what has been called 'lifespan change' …