Language structure is partly determined by social structure

This is so intriguing, but now I've looked a bit more at the article:Language structure is partly determined by social structure I recall that it chimes with informal observations: "human languages may adapt more like biological organisms than previously thought and that the more common and popular the language, the simpler its construction to facilitate its survival."
The main issue is determining simplicity of grammar; this seems to be taken to mean less tense, number etc inflection and less pronouns. The upshot is "anguages with long histories of adult learners have become easier to learn over time. Although a number of researchers have predicted such relationships between social and language structure, this is the first large-scale statistical test of this idea." Which makes intuitive sense. The interesting thing therefore is the implication that languages like English have evolved partly because of having non-native speakers: in a sense, I would venture, by a degree of creolisation. There may be issues of cultural transfer implied in this: that such forms are more widely adopted because of association with prestigious cultural artefacts (objects, music etc).
Of course this means that 'purist' approaches to English language may have to bow to the multi-cultural history ...