Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

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1993 :: PROCEEDINGS
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
The Structure-Grounding ProblemPDF
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 1993
Abstract Work on grounding has made a start towards an understanding of where simple perceptual categories come from. But human concepts are made up of more than the simple categories of these models; concepts have internal structure. Within the visual/spatial ...
1993 :: JOURNAL
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Why we need ESS signalling theory
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 340(1292):245-250, 1993
Evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) models of biological signalling are important because the intimate coevolution of signalling and receiving strategies is complicated. Tentative results from a numerical study of error-prone signalling show the value of formal modelling. Error ...MORE ⇓
Evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) models of biological signalling are important because the intimate coevolution of signalling and receiving strategies is complicated. Tentative results from a numerical study of error-prone signalling show the value of formal modelling. Error in perception can create discreteness in the distribution of signals produced, and so observed discreteness in nature may call for no more complicated explanation. Further developments in the theory of signalling may include a link with theories of aggression such as the sequential assessment game. The technical device of a 'scratch space' may allow a natural development of 'two-way' information games in which each contestant plays the roles of signaller and receiver simultaneously. This device may also incidentally derive mental states from purely strategic considerations.
Adaptive Behavior
Adaptive Behavior 2(2):161-187, 1993
Synthetic ethology is proposed as a means of conducting controlled experiments investigating the mechanisms and evolution of communication. After a discussion of the goals and methods of synthetic ethology, two series of experiments are described based on at least 5000 breeding ...MORE ⇓
Synthetic ethology is proposed as a means of conducting controlled experiments investigating the mechanisms and evolution of communication. After a discussion of the goals and methods of synthetic ethology, two series of experiments are described based on at least 5000 breeding cycles. The first demonstrates the evolution of cooperative communication in a population of simple machines. The average fitness of the population and the organization of its use of signals are compared under three conditions: communication suppressed, communication permitted, and communication permitted in the presence of learning. Where communication is permitted the fitness increases about 26 times faster than when communication is suppressed; with communication and learning the rate of fitness increase is about 100 fold. The second series of experiments illustrates the evolution of a syntactically simple language, in which a pair of signals is required for effective communication.
ASCAP Newsletter
The problems of Extrapolating from Creole to DNA to Protolanguage: A reply to Derek Bickerton
ASCAP Newsletter 6(2):12-15, 1993
Games and Economic Behavior
Games and Economic Behavior 5(4):547-575, 1993
This paper identifies evolutionarily stable outcomes in games in which one player has private information and the other takes a payoff-relevant action. The informed player can communicate at little cost. Outcomes satisfying a set-valued evolutionary stability condition must exist ...MORE ⇓
This paper identifies evolutionarily stable outcomes in games in which one player has private information and the other takes a payoff-relevant action. The informed player can communicate at little cost. Outcomes satisfying a set-valued evolutionary stability condition must exist and be efficient in common-interest games. When there is a small cost associated with using each message the outcome preferred by the informed player is stable. The paper introduces a nonequilibrium, set-valued stability notion of entry resistant sets. For games with partial common interest, the no-communication outcome is never an element of an entry resistant set.
Games and Economic Behavior 5(4):514-31, 1993
I define neologism-proofness, a refinement of perfect Bayesian equilibrium in cheap-talk games. It applies when players have a preexisting common language, so that an unexpected message's literal meaning is clear, and only credibility restricts communication. I show that certain ...MORE ⇓
I define neologism-proofness, a refinement of perfect Bayesian equilibrium in cheap-talk games. It applies when players have a preexisting common language, so that an unexpected message's literal meaning is clear, and only credibility restricts communication. I show that certain implausible equilibria are not neologism-proof; in some games, no equilibrium is.
Games and Economic Behavior 5(4):532-546, 1993
Asymmetric information games where the informed player can send a costless message (sender-receiver games) typically have equilibria where meaningful communication occurs. We therefore know such `cheap talk' can matter. Still, even when there is no conflict of interest, there are ...MORE ⇓
Asymmetric information games where the informed player can send a costless message (sender-receiver games) typically have equilibria where meaningful communication occurs. We therefore know such `cheap talk' can matter. Still, even when there is no conflict of interest, there are also equilibria where no information transmission occurs. This paper shows that for a class of games with perfectly coinciding interests modeled as asymmetric contests, where players are unsure of which role they will have, only meaningful communication is evolutionarily stable.
Linguistic Inquiry
A Computational Model of Language Learnability and Language Change
Linguistic Inquiry 24:299-345, 1993
Darwin's (1859) theory of natural selection had an important influence on the Neogrammarians. Like Darwin, they believed that diachronic change was the result of selective pressures on organisms from the environment operating on random variation ...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Coevolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humansPDF
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16(4):681-735, 1993
oup size is a function of relative neocortical volume in nonhuman primates. Extrapolation from this regression equation yields a predicted group size for modern humans very similar to that of certain hunter-gatherer and traditional horticulturalist societies. Groups of similar ...MORE ⇓
oup size is a function of relative neocortical volume in nonhuman primates. Extrapolation from this regression equation yields a predicted group size for modern humans very similar to that of certain hunter-gatherer and traditional horticulturalist societies. Groups of similar size are also found in other large-scale forms of contemporary and historical society. Among primates, the cohesion of groups is maintained by social grooming; the time devoted to social grooming is linearly related to group size among the Old World monkeys and apes. To maintain the stability of the large groups characteristic of humans by grooming alone would place intolerable demands on time budgets. It is suggested that (1) the evolution of large groups in the human lineage depended on the development of a more efficient method for time-sharing the processes of social bonding and that (2) language uniquely fulfills this requirement. Data on the size of conversational and other small interacting groups of humans are in line with the predictions for the relative efficiency of conversation compared to grooming as a bonding process. Analysis of a sample of human conversations shows that about 60% of time is spent gossiping about relationships and personal experiences. It is suggested that language evolved to allow individuals to learn about the behavioural characteristics of other group members more rapidly than is possible by direct observation alone.
Cognition
Cognition 48(1):71-99, 1993
It is a striking fact that in humans the greatest learning occurs precisely at that point in time - childhood - when the most dramatic maturational changes also occur. This report describes possible synergistic interactions between maturational change and the ability to learn a ...MORE ⇓
It is a striking fact that in humans the greatest learning occurs precisely at that point in time - childhood - when the most dramatic maturational changes also occur. This report describes possible synergistic interactions between maturational change and the ability to learn a complex domain (language), as investigated in connectionist networks. The networks are trained to process complex sentences involving relative clauses, number agreement, and several types of verb argument structure. Training fails in the case of networks which are fully formed and `adultlike' in their capacity. Training succeeds only when networks begin with limited working memory and gradually `mature' to the adult state. This result suggests that rather than being a limitation, developmental restrictions on resources may constitute a necessary prerequisite for mastering certain complex domains. Specifically, successful learning may depend on starting small.
1993 :: BOOK
The Lexicon in Acquisition
Cambridge University Press, 1993
Eve Clark argues for the centrality of the lexicon in language and language acquisition. She looks at the hypotheses children draw on about possible word meanings, and how they map their meanings onto forms. Starting with children's emerging knowledge of conventional ...
The Language Complexity GamePDF
MIT Press, 1993
This work elucidates the structure and complexity of human language in terms of the mathematics of information and computation. It strengthens Chomsky's early work on the mathematics of language, with the advantages of a better understanding of language and ...