Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

A new model of early language acquisition is introduced. The model demonstrates the staged emergence of lexical and syntactic acquisition. For a period, no linguistic activity is present. The emergence of first words signals the onset of the holophrastic stage that continues to mature without syntactic activity. Syntactic awareness eventually emerges as the result of multiple lexically-based insights. No mechanistic triggers are employed throughout development.

This paper introduces a system that simulates the transition from the one-word stage to the two-word stage in child language production. Two-word descriptions are syntactically generated and compete against one-word descriptions from the outset. Two-word descriptions become dominant as word combinations are repeatedly recognised, forming syntactic categories; resulting in an emergent simple syntax. The system demonstrates a similar maturation as children as evidenced by phenomena such as overextensions and mismatching, and the use of one-word descriptions being replaced by two-word descriptions over time.

This article presents a formal framework and outlines a method that autonomous agents can use to negotiate the semantics of their communication language at run-time. Such an ability is needed in open multi-agent systems so that agents can ensure they understand the implications of the utterances that are being made and so that they can tailor the meaning of the primitives to best fit their prevailing circumstances. To this end, the semantic space framework provides a systematic means of classifying the primitives along multiple relevant dimensions. This classification can then be used by the agents to structure their negotiation (or semantic fixing) process so that they converge to the mutually agreeable semantics that are necessary for coherent social interactions.