E. J. Briscoe
2009
What can mathematical, computational and robotic models tell us about the origins of syntax?
Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax, 2009
2008
Mind & Society 7(1):65-76, 2008
I discuss the ubiquity of power law distributions in language organisation (and elsewhere), and argue against Miller's (The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature, William Heinemann, London, 2000) argument that large vocabulary size is a consequence ...MORE ⇓
I discuss the ubiquity of power law distributions in language organisation (and elsewhere), and argue against Miller's (The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature, William Heinemann, London, 2000) argument that large vocabulary size is a consequence of sexual selection. Instead I argue that power law distributions are evidence that languages are best modelled as dynamical systems but raise some issues for models of iterated language learning.
2006
Language learning, power laws and sexual selectionPDF
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language, pages 19-26, 2006
I discuss the ubiquity of power law distributions in language organisation (and elsewhere), and argue against Miller's (2000) argument that large vocabulary size is a consequence of sexual selection. Instead I argue that power law distributions are evidence that languages are ...MORE ⇓
I discuss the ubiquity of power law distributions in language organisation (and elsewhere), and argue against Miller's (2000) argument that large vocabulary size is a consequence of sexual selection. Instead I argue that power law distributions are evidence that languages are best modelled as dynamical systems but raise some issues for models of iterated language learning.
2005
Coevolution of the language faculty and language(s) with decorrelated encodingsPDF
Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution 14.0, 2005
this paper, I argue that the decorrelation argumentdoes not undermine the account of the evolution of the language faculty via geneticassimilation nor the extended coevolutionary account in which the evolvinglanguage faculty in turn exerts linguistic selection pressure ...
2003
Grammatical AssimilationPDF
Language Evolution: The States of the Art, 2003
In this chapter I review arguments for and against the emergence and maintenance of an innate language acquisition device (LAD) via genetic assimilation. By an LAD, I mean nothing more or less than a learning mechanism which incorporates some language- ...
2002
Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models
Cambridge University Press, 2002
This book is really two books, which do not communicate with each other once one gets past the editor's introduction in chapter 1. The chapters by Worden, Batali, Kirby, and Hurford (see Table 1), whom I shall refer to collectively as WBKH, use computer simulation to ...
Grammatical Acquisition and Linguistic SelectionPDF
Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models 9.0, 2002
IntroductionPDF
Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models 1.0, 2002
2000
Evolutionary Perspectives on Diachronic SyntaxPDF
Diachronic Syntax: Models and Mechanisms, 2000
The main purpose of this article is to argue the merits of 'population thinking'in gaining insight into linguistic and, in particular, syntactic change. Population-level thinking and modelling can shed new light on many issues in the study of language acquisition and ...
Grammatical Acquisition: Inductive Bias and Coevolution of Language and the Language Acquisition DevicePDF
Language 76(2):245-296, 2000
An account of grammatical acquisition is developed within the parameter setting framework applied to a generalized categorial grammar (GCG). The GCG is embedded in a default inheritance network yielding a natural partial ordering (reflecting generality) of parameters ...
1999
The Acquisition of Grammar in an Evolving Population of Language AgentsPDF
Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence 3, 1999
Human language acquisition, and in particular the acquisition of grammar, is a partially-canalized, strongly-biased but robust and e cient procedure. For example, children prefer to induce lexically compositional rules (eg Wanner and Gleitman, 1982) despite the use, in ...
1998
Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Coevolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition DevicePDF
Proceedings of Eighth Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Conference, 1998
An account of parameter setting during grammatical acquisition is presented in terms of Generalized Categorial Grammar embedded in a multiple default inheritance hierarchy, providing a natural partial ordering on the setting of parameters (Briscoe, 1997a). ...
1997
Proc. of 35th Assoc. for Comp. Ling., 1997
Abstract A new account of parameter setting during grammatical acquisition is presented in terms of Generalized Categorial Grammar embedded in a default inheritance hierarchy, providing a natural partial ordering on the setting of parameters. Experiments show that ...