%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % License % % % % The "document" referred to herein is the collection of bibtex citations presented % % in this collection. Specifically, this license covers ONLY this collection of % % bibtex citations. Referenced items themselves (the actual articles, books, etc.) % % may have their own licenses and copyrights, and are not covered by this license. % % % % Copyright (c) 2001-2008 by Jun Wang and Les Gasser. Permission is granted to % % copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU % % Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by % % the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover % % Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. % % % % A copy of the license can be found here: "http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html" % % GNU Free Documentation License. % % % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @article{abrams03languageDeath, author={Daniel M. Abrams and Steven H. Strogatz}, title={Modelling the dynamics of language death}, journal={Nature}, year={2003}, month={August}, volume={424}, pages={900}, doi={10.1038/424900a}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/abrams03languageDeath.html} } @inproceedings{ackley94altruismIn, author={D. H. Ackley and M. L. Littman}, title={Altruism in the evolution of communication}, year={1994}, pages={40-48}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={R. Brooks and P. Maes}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life IV}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ackley94altruismIn.html}, abstract={Computer models of evolutionary phenomena often assume that the fitness of an individual can be evaluated in isolation, but effective communication requires that individuals interact. Existing models directly reward speakers for improved behavior on the part of the listeners so that, essentially, effective communication is fitness. We present new models in which, even though 'speaking truthfully' provides no tangible benefit to the speaker, effective communication nonetheless evolves. A large population is spatially distributed so that 'communication range' approximately correlates with 'breeding range,' so that most of the time 'you'll be talking to family,' allowing kin selection to encourage the emergence of communication. However, the emergence of altruistic communication also creates niches that can be exploited by 'information parasites.' The new models display complex and subtle long-term dynamics as the global implications of such social dilemmas are played out.} } @incollection{aerts05quantumEvolution, author={Diederik Aerts and Marek Czachor and Bart D'Hooghe}, title={Towards a quantum evolutionary scheme: violating Bell's inequalities in language}, year={2006}, editor={Gontier, Nathalie and van Bendegem, Jean Paul and Aerts, Diederik}, publisher={Dordrecht: Springer}, booktitle={Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture - A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aerts05quantumEvolution.html}, keywords={quantum, evolution, language, Bell's inequalities, context}, abstract={We show the presence of genuine quantum structures in human language. The neo-Darwinian evolutionary scheme is founded on a probability structure that satisfies the Kolmogorovian axioms, and as a consequence cannot incorporate quantum-like evolutionary change. In earlier research we revealed quantum structures in processes taking place in conceptual space. We argue that the presence of quantum structures in language and the earlier detected quantum structures in conceptual change make the neo-Darwinian evolutionary scheme strictly too limited for Evolutionary Epistemology. We sketch how we believe that evolution in a more general way should be implemented in epistemology and conceptual change, but also in biology, and how this view would lead to another relation between both biology and epistemology.} } @inproceedings{agostini03advertisingGames, author={Alessandro Agostini and Paolo Avesani}, title={Advertising Games for Web Services}, year={2003}, pages={93-109}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS-03)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/agostini03advertisingGames.html}, keywords={Web information systems and services; semantic interoperability; negotiation protocols; peer-to-peer cooperation}, abstract={We advance and discuss a framework suitable to study theoretical implications and practical impact of language evolution and lexicon sharing in an open distributed multi-agent system. In our approach, the assumption of autonomy plays a key role to preserve the opportunity for the agents of local encoding of meanings. We consider the application scenario of Web services, where we conceive the problem of advertisement as a matter of sharing a denotational language. We provide a precise formulation of the agentsrsquo behavior within a game-theoretical setting. As an important consequence of our ``advertising games,'' we interpret the problem of knowledge interoperability and management in the light of evolutionary dynamics and learning in games. Our methodology is inspired by work in natural language semantics and ``language games.''} } @article{ahlswede05NowakInformationTheoryModel, author={Rudolf Ahlswede and Erdal Arikan and Lars Baumer and Christian Deppe}, title={Information theoretic models in language evolution}, journal={Electronic Notes in Discrete Mathematics}, year={2005}, month={August}, volume={21}, pages={97-100}, doi={10.1016/j.endm.2005.07.002}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ahlswede05NowakInformationTheoryModel.html}, abstract={We study a model for language evolution which was introduced by Nowak and Krakauer ([M.A. Nowak and D.C. Krakauer, The evolution of language, PNAS 96 (14) (1999) 8028-8033]). We analyze discrete distance spaces and prove a conjecture of Nowak for all metrics with a positive semidefinite associated matrix. This natural class of metrics includes all metrics studied by different authors in this connection. In particular it includes all ultra-metric spaces. Furthermore, the role of feedback is explored and multi-user scenarios are studied. In all models we give lower and upper bounds for the fitness.} } @book{aitchison00theSeeds, author={Jean Aitchison}, title={The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution}, year={2000}, month={August}, publisher={Cambridge Univ Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aitchison00theSeeds.html} } @incollection{aitchison98onDiscontinuing, author={J. Aitchison}, title={On discontinuing the continuity-discontinuity debate}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aitchison98onDiscontinuing.html} } @inproceedings{akaishi03misperception, author={Jin Akaishi and Takaya Arita}, title={Misperception, Communication and Diversity}, year={2003}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life VIII}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/akaishi03misperception.html}, abstract={It is commonly agreed upon that misperception is detrimental. However, misperception might have a beneficial effect from a collective viewpoint when individuals mispercept incoming information that promotes a specific kind of behavior, which leads to an increase in diversity. First, this paper proposes our hypothesis regarding adaptive property of misperception based on the argument of the relationship between misperception and behavioral diversity, and the effects of communication on diversity. Then, a simple computational model is constructed for a resource-searching problem by using the multi-agent modeling method. We investigate both direct misperception, that are caused when obtaining information directly from surrounding environment, and indirect misperception, that are caused when obtaining information indirectly through communication by conducting simulation experiments. The experimental results have shown that misperception could increase diversity in behavior of agents, thus could be adaptive, while accurate communication could decrease a diversity of agent behavior, which might decrease fitness. This paper also discusses a correlative relationship between direct misperception and indirect misperception. We believe that the study on adaptive property of misperception based on an innovative frame of reference and a powerful methodology in the field of complex system or artificial life would shed light on fundamental issues in cognitive science, memetics and engineering.} } @incollection{allen99theEmergence, author={J. Allen and M. S. Seidenberg}, title={The Emergence of Grammaticality in Connectionist Networks}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/allen99theEmergence.html} } @inproceedings{allen05learningToCommunicate, author={Martin Allen and Claudia V. Goldman and Shlomo Zilberstein}, title={Learning to Communicate in Decentralized Systems}, year={2005}, pages={1--8}, address={Pittsburgh, PA}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Workshop on Multiagent Learning, AAAI-05}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/allen05learningToCommunicate.html}, abstract={Learning to communicate is an emerging challenge in AI research. It is known that agents interacting in decentralized, stochastic environments can benefit from exchanging information. Multiagent planning generally assumes that agents share a common means of communication; however, in building robust distributed systems it is important to address potential mis-coordination resulting from misinterpretation of messages exchanged. This paper lays foundations for studying this problem, examining its properties analytically and empirically in a decision-theoretic context. Solving the problem optimally is often intractable, but our approach enables agents using different languages to converge upon coordination over time.} } @inproceedings{allexandre98emergenceOf, author={C. Allexandre and A. Popescu-Belis}, title={Emergence of Grammatical Conventions in an Agent Population Using a Simplified Tree Adjoining Grammar}, year={1998}, pages={383-384}, address={Paris}, booktitle={ICMAS98}, note={poster}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/allexandre98emergenceOf.html} } @book{allott01theNatural, author={Robin Allott}, title={The Natural Origin of Language}, year={2001}, publisher={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/allott01theNatural.html} } @book{allott87motorTheory, author={Robin Allott}, title={The Motor Theory of Language Origin}, year={1987}, publisher={Lewes: Book Guild}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/allott87motorTheory.html}, abstract={The motor theory is not only a theory of language origin and development but also a theory of current language function. Language is constructed on the basis of a previously existing complex system, the neural motor system. The motor system has been built up from a limited number of primitive elements - units of motor action - which can be formed into more extended motor programs. The programs and procedures which evolved for the construction and execution of simple and sequential motor movements formed the basis of the programs and procedures going to form language. The development of the language capacity has resulted from the progressive establishment of new cross-modal or transfunctional neural linkages, cerebral reorganization in the sense that the interconnectedness of different brain regions concerned with what are usually considered distinct functions, has substantially increased. This extensive relation between language and the motor system is what one might reasonably expect, given the central role of the motor system in all behaviour and the essentially motor character of speech production, as the outcome of movements of the articulatory apparatus. The motor system is seen as the indispensable mediator between different modalities, and particularly between language and perception.} } @article{ambrose01science, author={Stanley H. Ambrose}, title={Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution}, journal={Science}, year={2001}, volume={291}, number={5509}, pages={1748-1753}, doi={10.1126/science.1059487}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ambrose01science.html}, abstract={Human biological and cultural evolution are closely linked to technological innovations. Direct evidence for tool manufacture and use is absent before 2.5 million years ago (Ma), so reconstructions of australopithecine technology are based mainly on the behavior and anatomy of chimpanzees. Stone tool technology, robust australopithecines, and the genus Homo appeared almost simultaneously 2.5 Ma. Once this adaptive threshold was crossed, technological evolution was accompanied by increased brain size, population size, and geographical range. Aspects of behavior, economy, mental capacities, neurological functions, the origin of grammatical language, and social and symbolic systems have been inferred from the archaeological record of Paleolithic technology.} } @article{rubinstein2000bookreview, author={Luca Anderlini and Leonardo Felli and Adam Morton and Philip Mirowski}, title={Book Reviews: Economics and Language. Five Essays. By Ariel Rubinstein. 2000.}, journal={Economica}, year={2004}, month={February}, volume={71}, number={281}, pages={169-173}, doi={10.1111/j.0013-0427.2004.363_2.x}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/rubinstein2000bookreview.html} } @incollection{andersen92complexityAnd, author={Elaine S. Andersen}, title={Complexity and Language Acquisition: Influences on the Development of Morphological Systems in Children}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/andersen92complexityAnd.html} } @inproceedings{angeline94coevolvingHigh, author={Peter J. Angeline and Jordan B. Pollack}, title={Coevolving High-Level Representations}, year={1994}, pages={55-71}, address={Reading MA}, editor={C. Langton}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={Artificial Life III}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/angeline94coevolvingHigh.html} } @incollection{aoun92aBrief, author={Joseph Aoun}, title={A Brief Presentation of the Generative Enterprise}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aoun92aBrief.html} } @book{arbib06mirrorSystemEditedBook, title={Action to Language via the Mirror Neuron System}, year={2006}, editor={Michael A. Arbib}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib06mirrorSystemEditedBook.html} } @article{arbib06speechAsAction, author={M. A. Arbib}, title={A sentence is to speech as what is to action?}, journal={Cortex}, year={2006}, month={May}, volume={42}, number={4}, pages={507-14}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib06speechAsAction.html}, abstract={This article offers a conceptual framework for integrated analysis of subprocesses in action and language, based on goal-directed action. Anatomical substrates are discussed in the companion paper (Arbib and Bota, 2003) which approaches ``Integrative Models of Broca's Area and the Ventral Premotor Cortex'' within the context of explaining why the evolution of the human brain yielded mechanisms which support language in a multi-modal vocal-manual-facial system rather than privileging the vocal mode. Arbib and Bota (2003) examine homologies between different cortical areas in macaque and human to revisit the Mirror System Hypothesis (MSH) of Rizzolatti and Arbib (1998)--the notion that the mirror system for grasping (which has its frontal outpost in premotor area F5 of the macaque) provides the substrate for the evolution of the language-ready brain which supports parity of communication. They also offer a critique and extension based on the work of Aboitiz and Garcí(1997; Aboitiz et al., 2006). Arbib and Bota (2003) also discussed the utility of neuroinformatics in relating information across diverse cortical atlases and evaluating degrees of homology for brain regions of interest in different species (for discussion, see Deacon, 2004; Arbib and Bota, 2004).} } @incollection{arbib05mirrorSystem, author={Michael A. Arbib}, title={The Mirror System Hypothesis: How did protolanguage evolve?}, year={2005}, chapter={2}, editor={Maggie Tallerman}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib05mirrorSystem.html} } @article{arbib04BBS-monkeylikeAction, author={M. A. Arbib}, title={From monkey-like action recognition to human language: An evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={2005}, month={April}, volume={28}, number={2}, pages={105-124}, note={discussion pages: 125-167}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib04BBSmonkeylikeAction.html}, keywords={gestures; hominids; language evolution; mirror system; neurolinguistics; primates; protolanguage; sign language; speech; vocalization}, abstract={The article analyzes the neural and functional grounding of language skills as well as their emergence in hominid evolution, hypothesizing stages leading from abilities known to exist in monkeys and apes and presumed to exist in our hominid ancestors right through to modern spoken and signed languages. The starting point is the observation that both premotor area F5 in monkeys and Broca's area in humans contain a 'mirror system' active for both execution and observation of manual actions, and that F5 and Broca’s area are homologous brain regions. This grounded the Mirror System Hypothesis of Rizzolatti & Arbib (1998) which offers the mirror system for grasping as a key neural 'missing link' between the abilities of our non-human ancestors of 20 million years ago and modern human language, with manual gestures rather than a system for vocal communication providing the initial seed for this evolutionary process. The present article, however, goes 'beyond the mirror' to offer hypotheses on evolutionary changes within and outside the mirror systems which may have occurred to equip Homo sapiens with a language-ready brain. Crucial to the early stages of this progression is the mirror system for grasping and its extension to permit imitation. Imitation is seen as evolving via a so-called 'simple' system such as that found in chimpanzees (which allows imitation of complex 'objectoriented' sequences but only as the result of extensive practice) to a so-called 'complex' system found in humans (which allows rapid imitation even of complex sequences, under appropriate conditions) which supports pantomime. This is hypothesized to provide the substrate for the development of protosign, a combinatorially open repertoire of manual gestures, which then provides the scaffolding for the emergence of protospeech (which thus owes little to non-human vocalizations), with protosign and protospeech then developing in an expanding spiral. It is argued that these stages involve biological evolution of both brain and body. By contrast, it is argued that the progression from protosign and protospeech to languages with full-blown syntax and compositional semantics was a historical phenomenon in the development of Homo sapiens, involving few if any further biological changes.} } @incollection{arbib04response, author={Michael A. Arbib}, title={How Far Is Language beyond Our Grasp? A Response to Hurford}, year={2004}, pages={315-322}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib04response.html} } @article{arbib03bookreview, author={Michael A. Arbib}, title={Review of ``Linguistic evolution through language acquisition: Formal and computational models'' by Ted Briscoe, 2002}, journal={Computational Linguistics}, year={2003}, volume={29}, number={3}, pages={503-506}, note={Special issue on web as corpus}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib03bookreview.html} } @incollection{arbib03theEvolving, author={M. A. Arbib}, title={The evolving mirror system: a neural basis for language readiness}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib03theEvolving.html} } @article{arbib03pt, author={Michael A. Arbib}, title={Rana computatrix to human language: towards a computational neuroethology of language evolution}, journal={Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences}, year={2003}, volume={361}, number={1811}, pages={2345--2379}, doi={10.1098/rsta.2003.1248}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib03pt.html}, abstract={Walter's Machina speculatrix inspired the name Rana computatrix for a family of models of visuomotor coordination in the frog, which contributed to the development of computational neuroethology. We offer here an 'evolutionary' perspective on models in the same tradition for rat, monkey and human. For rat, we show how the frog-like taxon affordance model provides a basis for the spatial navigation mechanisms that involve the hippocampus and other brain regions. For monkey, we recall two models of neural mechanisms for visuomotor coordination. The first, for saccades, shows how interactions between the parietal and frontal cortex augment superior colliculus seen as the homologue of frog tectum. The second, for grasping, continues the theme of parieto-frontal interactions, linking parietal affordances to motor schemas in premotor cortex. It further emphasizes the mirror system for grasping, in which neurons are active both when the monkey executes a specific grasp and when it observes a similar grasp executed by others. The model of humanbrain mechanisms is based on the mirror-system hypothesis of the evolution of the language-ready brain, which sees the human Broca's area as an evolved extension of the mirror system for grasping.} } @incollection{arbib01theMirror, author={M. A. Arbib}, title={The Mirror System, Imitation, and the Evolution of Language}, year={2002}, editor={Kerstin Dautenhahn and Chrystopher Nehaniv}, publisher={The MIT Press}, booktitle={Imitation in Animals and Artifacts}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib01theMirror.html}, keywords={imitation; evolution of language; parsing; communication; behavior; chimpanzees}, abstract={This chapter argues that the ability to imitate is a key innovation in the evolutionary path leading to language in the human and relates this hypothesis to specific data on brain mechanisms. In this context, imitation involves more than simply observing someone else's movement and responding with movement that in its entirety is already in one's own repertoire, imitation involves 'parsing' a complex movement. What marks humans as distinct from their common ancestors with chimpanzees is that whereas the chimpanzee can imitate short novel sequences through repeated exposure, humans can acquire (longer) novel sequences in a single trial if the sequences are not too long and the components are relatively familiar. This chapter will take us through seven hypothesized stages of evolution: (1) grasping; (2) a mirror system for grasping; (3) a simple imitation system for grasping; (4) a complex imitation system for grasping; (5) a manual-based communication system; (6) speech, which I here characterize as being the open-ended production and perception of sequences of vocal gestures, without implying that these sequences constitute a language; and (7) language.} } @incollection{arbib01groundingThe, author={Michael A. Arbib}, title={Grounding the Mirror System Hypothesis for the Evolution of the Language-Ready Brain}, year={2002}, pages={229-254}, address={London}, chapter={11}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib01groundingThe.html} } @incollection{arbib01coEvolution, author={M. A. Arbib}, title={Co-Evolution of Human Consciousness and Language}, year={2001}, volume={929}, pages={195-220}, editor={Pedro C. Marijuan}, publisher={}, booktitle={Cajal and Consciousness: Scientific Approaches to Consciousness on the Centennial of Ramon y Cajal's Textura. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib01coEvolution.html}, abstract={This article recalls Cajal's brief mention of consciousness in the Textura as a function of the human brain quite distinct from reflex action, and discusses the view that human consciousness may share aspects of 'animal awareness' with other species, but has its unique form because humans possess language. Three ingredients of a theory of the evolution of human consciousness are offered: the view that a prés of intended activity is necessarily formed in the brain of a human that communicates in a human way; the notion that such a prés constitutes consciousness; and a new theory of the evolution of human language based on the mirror system of monkeys and the role of communication by means of hand gestures as a stepping-stone to speech.} } @inproceedings{arbib06mirrorSystemHypothesis, author={Michael A. Arbib and James Bonaiuto and Edina Rosta}, title={The mirror system hypothesis: From a macaque-like mirror system to imitation}, year={2006}, pages={3-10}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib06mirrorSystemHypothesis.html}, abstract={The Mirror System Hypothesis (MSH) of the evolution of brain mechanisms supporting language distinguishes a monkey-like mirror neuron system from a chimpanzee-like mirror system that supports simple imitation and a human-like mirror system that supports complex imitation and language. This paper briefly reviews the seven evolutionary stages posited by MSH and then focuses on the early stages which precede but are claimed to ground language. It introduces MNS2, a new model of action recognition learning by mirror neurons of the macaque brain to address data on audio-visual mirror neurons. In addition, the paper offers an explicit hypothesis on how to embed a macaque-like mirror system in a larger human-like circuit which has the capacity for imitation by both direct and indirect routes. Implications for the study of speech are briefly noted.} } @article{arbib03neunet, author={Michael A. Arbib and Mihail Bota}, title={Language evolution: neural homologies and neuroinformatics}, journal={Neural Networks}, year={2003}, volume={16}, number={9}, pages={1237-1260}, doi={10.1016/j.neunet.2003.08.002}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib03neunet.html}, keywords={Brain evolution; Broca's area;Cortical maps; Homologies; Neural; Language; Neural mechanisms; Mirror neurons; NeuroHomology Database; Neuroinformatics; Neurolinguistics; Wernicke's area}, abstract={This paper contributes to neurolinguistics by grounding an evolutionary account of the readiness of the human brain for language in the search for homologies between different cortical areas in macaque and human. We consider two hypotheses for this grounding, that of Aboitiz and Garcí[Brain Res. Rev. 25 (1997) 381] and the Mirror System Hypothesis of Rizzolatti and Arbib [Trends Neurosci. 21 (1998) 188] and note the promise of computational modeling of neural circuitry of the macaque and its linkage to analysis of human brain imaging data. In addition to the functional differences between the two hypotheses, problems arise because they are grounded in different cortical maps of the macaque brain. In order to address these divergences, we have developed several neuroinformatics tools included in an on-line knowledge management system, the NeuroHomology Database, which is equipped with inference engines both to relate and translate information across equivalent cortical maps and to evaluate degrees of homology for brain regions of interest in different species.} } @article{arbib05schizophrenia, author={Michael A. Arbib and T. Nathan Mundhenk}, title={Schizophrenia and the mirror system: an essay}, journal={Neuropsychologia}, year={2005}, volume={43}, number={2}, pages={268-280}, doi={10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.11.013}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib05schizophrenia.html}, keywords={FARS model; Grasping; Mirror system; Schizophrenia; Agency}, abstract={We analyze how data on the mirror system for grasping in macaque and human ground the mirror system hypothesis for the evolution of the language-ready human brain, and then focus on this putative relation between hand movements and speech to contribute to the understanding of how it may be that a schizophrenic patient generates an action (whether manual or verbal) but does not attribute the generation of that action to himself. We make a crucial discussion between self-monitoring and attribution of agency. We suggest that vebal hallucinations occur when an utterance progresses through verbal creation pathways and returns as a vocalization observed, only to be dismissed as external since no record of its being created has been kept. Schizophrenic patients on this theory then confabulate the agent.} } @article{arbib97neuralExpectations, author={M. A. Arbib and G. Rizzolatti}, title={Neural expectations: a possible evolutionary path from manual skills to language}, journal={Communication and Cognition}, year={1997}, volume={29}, pages={393-424}, note={Reprinted in Ph. Van Loocke (ed.) The nature, representation and evolution of concepts, London/New York: Routledge}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arbib97neuralExpectations.html} } @book{arita00artificialLife, author={Takaya Arita}, title={Artificial Life: A Constructive Approach to the Origin/Evolution of Life, Society, and Language}, year={2000}, publisher={}, note={Japanese edition copyright, The English edition is under preparations}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arita00artificialLife.html} } @inproceedings{arita98evolutionOf, author={T. Arita and Y. Koyama}, title={Evolution of Linguistic Diversity in a Simple Communication System}, year={1998}, pages={9-17}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={C. Adami and R. Belew and H. Kitano and C. Taylor}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life VI}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arita98evolutionOf.html}, abstract={This paper reports on the current state of our efforts to shed light on the origin and evolution of linguistic diversity by using synthetic modeling and artificial life techniques. We construct a simple abstract model of a communication system that has been designed with regard to referential signaling in nonhuman animals. The evolutionary dynamics of vocabulary sharing is analyzed based on these experiments. The results show that mutation rates, population size, and resource restrictions define the classes of vocabulary sharing. We also see a dynamic equilibrium, where two states, a state with one dominant shared word and a state with several dominant shared words, take turns appearing. We incorporate the idea of the abstract model into a more concrete situation and present an agent-based model to verify the results of the abstract model and to examine the possibility of using linguistic diversity in the field of distributed AI and robotics. It has been shown that the evolution of linguistic diversity in vocabulary sharing will support cooperative behavior in a population of agents.} } @article{arita98linguisticDiversity, author={Takaya Arita and Yuhji Koyama}, title={Evolution of linguistic diversity in a simple communication system}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={1998}, month={Winter}, volume={4}, number={1}, pages={109-124}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arita98linguisticDiversity.html}, keywords={Evolution; Linguistic Diversity; Communication; Genetic Algorithms}, abstract={This article reports on the current state of our efforts to shed light on the origin and evolution of linguistic diversity using synthetic modeling and artificial life techniques. We construct a simple abstract model of a communication system that has been designed with regard to referential signaling in nonhuman animals. We analyze the evolutionary dynamics of vocabulary sharing based on these experiments. The results show that mutation rates, population size, and resource restrictions define the classes of vocabulary sharing. We also see a dynamic equilibrium, where two states, a state with one dominant shared word and a state with several dominant shared words, take turns appearing. We incorporate the idea of the abstract model into a more concrete situation and present an agent-based model to verify the results of the abstract model and to examine the possibility of using linguistic diversity in the field of distributed AI and robotics. It has been shown that the evolution of linguistic diversity in vocabulary sharing will support cooperative behavior in a population of agents.} } @inproceedings{arita96aSimple, author={Takaya Arita and C. E. Taylor}, title={A Simple Model for the Evolution of Communication}, year={1996}, pages={405-410}, editor={L.J. Fogel and P. J. Angeline, and T. Bäck}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={The Fifth Annual Conference On Evolutionary Programming}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arita96aSimple.html}, abstract={This paper investigates the evolution of communication among autonomous robots in the real world. A simple model has been constructed as a first step, in which a population of artificial organisms inhabits a lattice plane. Each organism communicates information with neighbors by uttering words. A common language typically evolves. We have analyzed evolutionary dynamics in this system, and have begun to implement it with a population of small mobile robots.} } @inproceedings{arita95aPrimitive, author={T. Arita and Kawaguchi Unno}, title={A Primitive Model for Language Generation by Evolution and Learning}, year={1995}, pages={163-170}, booktitle={International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Evolutionary Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arita95aPrimitive.html}, abstract={Natural language, communication or related mental phenomena must surely be a prominent candidate for an evolutionary explanation. This paper discusses a primitive model of language generation by evolution and learning among a population of artificial organisms whose brains are realized by a model of associative memory with a neural network structure. The goal of our study is to acquire general knowledge of the theory that relates the mechanisms to the evolutionary process such as language generation, and to develop the evolutionary systems which have facilities for still more intelligent information processing.} } @article{arnold06primateCalls, author={Kate Arnold and Klaus Zuberbuhler}, title={Semantic combinations in primate calls}, journal={Nature}, year={2006}, month={May}, volume={441}, pages={303}, doi={10.1038/441303a}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/arnold06primateCalls.html}, abstract={Syntax sets human language apart from other natural communication systems, although its evolutionary origins are obscure. Here we show that free-ranging putty-nosed monkeys combine two vocalizations into different call sequences that are linked to specific external events, such as the presence of a predator and the imminent movement of the group. Our findings indicate that non-human primates can combine calls into higher-order sequences that have a particular meaning.} } @incollection{aslin99statisticalLearning, author={R. N. Aslin and J. R. Saffran and E. L. Newport}, title={Statistical Learning in Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Domains.}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aslin99statisticalLearning.html} } @incollection{atkinson06phylogeneticMethods, author={Quentin D. Atkinson and Russell D. Gray}, title={How Old is the Indo-European Language Family? Illumination or More Moths to the Flame?}, year={2006}, pages={91-}, chapter={8}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/atkinson06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @article{atkinson08evolveBursts, author={Quentin D. Atkinson and Andrew Meade and Chris Venditti and Simon J. Greenhill and Mark Pagel}, title={Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts}, journal={Science}, year={2008}, month={February}, volume={319}, number={5863}, pages={588}, doi={10.1126/science.1149683}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/atkinson08evolveBursts.html}, abstract={Linguists speculate that human languages often evolve in rapid or punctuational bursts, sometimes associated with their emergence from other languages, but this phenomenon has never been demonstrated. We used vocabulary data from three of the world's major language groups -- Bantu, Indo-European, and Austronesian -- to show that 10 to 33\% of the overall vocabulary differences among these languages arose from rapid bursts of change associated with language-splitting events. Our findings identify a general tendency for increased rates of linguistic evolution in fledgling languages, perhaps arising from a linguistic founder effect or a desire to establish a distinct social identity.} } @inproceedings{aurnhammer06semanticsWWW, author={Melanie Aurnhammer and Peter Hanappe and Luc Steels}, title={Integrating Collaborative Tagging and Emergent Semantics for Image Retrieval}, year={2006}, month={May}, booktitle={Proceedings WWW2006, Collaborative Web Tagging Workshop}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/aurnhammer06semanticsWWW.html}, abstract={In this paper, we investigate the combination of collaborative tagging and emergent semantics for improved data navigation and search. We propose to use visual features in addition to tags provided by users in order to discover new relationships between data. We show that our method is able to overcome some of the problems involved in navigating databases using tags only, such as synonymy or different languages, spelling mistakes, homonymy, or missing tags. On the other hand, image search based on visual features can be simplified substantially by the use of tags. We present technical details of our prototype system and show some preliminary results.} } @unpublished{avdis00selfOrganisation, author={Efstathios Avdis}, title={Self-Organisation of Communicating Agents -- Linguistic Diversity in Populations of Autonomous Agents}, year={2000}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avdis00selfOrganisation.html} } @inproceedings{avesani03P2Pgame, author={P. Avesani and A. Agostini}, title={A Peer-to-Peer Advertising Game}, year={2003}, pages={28-42}, publisher={Springer-Verlag LNCS 2910}, booktitle={Proceedings of the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avesani03P2Pgame.html}, abstract={Advertising plays a key role in service oriented recommendation over a peer-to-peer network. The advertising problem can be considered as the problem of finding a common language to denote the peers' capabilities and needs. Up to now the current approaches to the problem of advertising revealed that the proposed solutions either affect the autonomy assumption or do not scale up the size of the network. We explain how an approach based on language games can be effective in dealing with the typical issue of advertising: do not require ex-ante agreement and to be responsive to the evolution of the network as an open system. In the paper we introduce the notion of advertising game, a specific language game designed to deal with the issue of supporting the emergence of a common denotation language over a network of peers. We provide the related computational model and an experimental evaluation. A positive empirical evidence is achieved by sketching a peer-to-peer recommendation service for bookmark exchanging using real data.} } @inproceedings{avesani05webAnnotations, author={Paolo Avesani and Marco Cova}, title={Shared lexicon for distributed annotations on the Web}, year={2005}, month={May}, pages={207-214}, address={Chiba, Japan}, booktitle={WWW2005}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avesani05webAnnotations.html}, abstract={The interoperability among distributed and autonomous systems is the ultimate challenge facing the semantic web. Heterogeneity of data representation is the main source of problems. This paper proposes an innovative solution that combines lexical approaches and language games. The benefits for distributed annotation systems on the web are twofold: firstly, it will reduce the complexity of the semantic problem by moving the focus from the full-featured ontology level to the simpler lexicon level; secondly, it will avoid the drawback of a centralized third party mediator that may become a single point of failure. The main contributions of this work are concerned with (1) providing a proof of concept that language games can be an effective solution to creating and managing a distributed process of agreement on a shared lexicon, (2) describing a fully distributed service oriented architecture for language games, (3) providing empirical evidence on a real world case study in the domain of ski mountaineering.} } @inproceedings{avesani05weblog, author={P. Avesani and M. Cova and C. Hayes and P. Massa}, title={Learning Contextualized Weblog Topics}, year={2005}, month={May}, address={Chiba, Japan}, booktitle={WWW2005, 2nd Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avesani05weblog.html}, abstract={The blogosphere refers to the distributed network of user opinions published on the WWW. Whereas centralized review sites such Amazon.com previously allowed users to post opinions on goods such as books and CDs, blogging software allows users to publish opinions on any topic without constraints on predefined schema. However, centralized review sites such as Amazon.com have one significant advantage: reviews pertaining to a single topic are collected together in one place, allowing readers to peruse a diverse range of opinions quickly. In this paper we examine how such a topic-centric view of the Blogosphere can be created. We characterise the problems in aligning similar concepts created by a set of distributed, autonomous users and describe current initiatives to solve the problem. Finally, we introduce the Tagsocratic project, a novel initiative to solve the concept alignment problem using techniques derived from research in language acquisition among distributed, autonomous agents.} } @inproceedings{avesani04service, author={Paolo Avesani and Marco Cova and Roberto Tiella and Arun Sharma}, title={A Service Oriented Architecture for Advertising Games}, year={2004}, month={November}, editor={S. Weerawarana}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Service Oriented Computing}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avesani04service.html}, abstract={A critical issue of distributed systems is concerned with the advertising task. Current solutions require an ex-ante agreement on a common shared language. Although such an approach is feasible from the technological point of view, it is not effective in practice. The process of managing this agreement may present social implications that make the solution difficult to achieve. Recent trends in research propose a new approach based on advertising games where the agreement on a common language is produced at run time. Nevertheless up to now such a model has been studied only through simulations with standalone platforms. Our contribution is the design and the development of the first web services oriented architecture for advertising games. Therefore we approached all the issues typical of distributed systems neglected by the simulators like asynchronous communications, denial of services, and so on. Finally we present a real world application where the architecture has been deployed to support the advertising task using an advertising game model.} } @inproceedings{avesani05CBR, author={Paolo Avesani and Conor Hayes and Marco Cova}, title={Language Games: Solving the Vocabulary Problem in Multi-Case-Base Reasoning}, year={2005}, pages={35-49}, booktitle={ICCBR 2005}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/avesani05CBR.html}, abstract={The problem of heterogeneous case representation poses a major obstacle to realising real-life multi-case-base reasoning (MCBR) systems. The knowledge overhead in developing and maintaining translation protocols between distributed case bases poses a serious challenge to CBR developers. In this paper, we situate CBR as a flexible problem-solving strategy that relies on several heterogeneous knowledge containers. We introduce a technique called language games to solve the interoperability issue. Our technique has two phases. The first is an eager learning phase where case bases communicate to build a shared indexing lexicon of similar cases in the distributed network. The second is the problem-solving phase where, using the distributed index, a case base can quickly consult external case bases if the local solution is insufficient. We provide a detailed description of our approach and demonstrate its effectiveness using an evaluation on a real data set from the tourism domain.} } @article{Badalamenti94poissonEvolution, author={A. F. Badalamenti and R. Langs and G. Cramer and J. Robinson}, title={Poisson evolution in word selection}, journal={Mathematical and Computer Modelling}, year={1994}, month={June}, volume={19}, number={12}, pages={27-36}, doi={10.1016/0895-7177(94)90096-5}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Badalamenti94poissonEvolution.html}, keywords={Word analysis; Stochastic model; Evolutionary process; Rate constants; Poisson}, abstract={This paper presents the finding that the invocation of new words in human language samples is governed by a slowly changing Poisson process. The time dependent rate constant for this process has the form [small lambda, Greek(t)...]. This form implies that there are opening, middle and final phases to the introduction of new words, each distinguished by a dominant rate constant, or equivalently, rate of decay. With the occasional exception of the phase transition from beginning to middle, the rate small lambda, Greek(t) decays monotonically. Thus, small lambda, Greek(t) quantifies how the penchant of humans to introduce new words declines with the progression of their narratives, written or spoken.} } @inproceedings{Baillie05LanguageGamesICDL, author={Jean-Christophe Baillie and Matthieu Nottale}, title={Dynamic Evolution of Language Games between two Autonomous Robots}, year={2005}, booktitle={IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Baillie05LanguageGamesICDL.html}, keywords={Language acquisition, Language games, Symbol grounding, Social behaviors grounding, Autonomous development, Architectures}, abstract={The 'Talking Robots' experiment, inspired by the 'Talking Heads' experiment from Sony, explores possibilities on how to ground symbols into perception. We present here the first results of this experiment and outline a possible extension to social behaviors grounding: the purpose is to have the robots develop not only a lexicon but also the interaction protocol, or language game, that they use to create the lexicon. This raises several complex problems that we review here.} } @article{baker03tics, author={Mark C. Baker}, title={Linguistic differences and language design}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2003}, volume={7}, number={8}, pages={349-353}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00157-8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baker03tics.html}, abstract={A small number of discrete choices (‘parameters’) embedded within a system of otherwise universal principles create the extensive superficial differences between unrelated languages like English, Japanese, and Mohawk. Most current thinking about the evolution of language ignores or denies the existence of these parameters because it can see no rationale for them. That the human language faculty is organized in this way makes more sense if language is compared to a cipher or code. As such, it would have a purpose of concealing information from some at the same time as it communicates information to others.} } @unpublished{balkenius00theOrigin, author={Christian Balkenius and Peter Gardenfors and Lars Hall}, title={The Origin of Symbols in the Brain}, year={2000}, institution={Lund University Cognitive Science}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/balkenius00theOrigin.html} } @incollection{barber92ontongenyAnd, author={E. J. W. Barber and A. M. W. Peters}, title={Ontongeny and Phylogeny: What Child Language and Archaeology Have to Say to Each Other}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/barber92ontongenyAnd.html} } @inproceedings{baronchelli05fastConvergence, author={Andrea Baronchelli and Luca Dall'Asta and Alain Barrat and Vittorio Loreto}, title={Strategies for fast convergence in semiotic dynamics}, year={2006}, pages={480-485}, editor={Luis M. Rocha and et al.}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life X}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baronchelli05fastConvergence.html}, abstract={Semiotic dynamics is a novel field that studies how semiotic conventions spread and stabilize in a population of agents. This is a central issue both for theoretical and technological reasons since large system made up of communicating agents, like web communities or artificial embodied agents teams, are getting widespread. In this paper we discuss a recently introduced simple multi-agent model which is able to account for the emergence of a shared vocabulary in a population of agents. In particular we introduce a new deterministic agents' playing strategy that strongly improves the performance of the game in terms of faster convergence and reduced cognitive effort for the agents.} } @article{baronchelli05topologyLanguageGame, author={A. Baronchelli and L. Dall'Asta and A. Barrat and V. Loreto}, title={Topology Induced Coarsening in Language Games}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2005}, volume={73}, pages={015102}, doi={10.1103/PhysRevE.73.015102}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baronchelli05topologyLanguageGame.html}, abstract={We investigate how very large populations are able to reach a global consensus, out of local ``microscopic'' interaction rules, in the framework of a recently introduced class of models of semiotic dynamics, the so-called Naming Game. We compare in particular the convergence mechanism for interacting agents embedded in a low-dimensional lattice with respect to the mean-field case. We highlight that in low-dimensions consensus is reached through a coarsening process which requires less cognitive effort of the agents, with respect to the mean-field case, but takes longer to complete. In 1-d the dynamics of the boundaries is mapped onto a truncated Markov process from which we analytically computed the diffusion coefficient. More generally we show that the convergence process requires a memory per agent scaling as N and lasts a time N^{1+2/d} in dimension d<5 (d=4 being the upper critical dimension), while in mean-field both memory and time scale as N^{3/2}, for a population of N agents. We present analytical and numerical evidences supporting this picture.} } @article{baronchelli05sharpTransitionVocabulary, author={A. Baronchelli and M. Felici and E. Caglioti and V. Loreto and L. Steels}, title={Sharp Transition towards Shared Vocabularies in Multi-Agent Systems}, journal={J. Stat. Mech.}, year={2006}, number={P06014}, doi={10.1088/1742-5468/2006/06/P06014}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baronchelli05sharpTransitionVocabulary.html}, keywords={interacting agent models, scaling in socio-economic systems, stochastic processes, new applications of statistical mechanics}, abstract={What processes can explain how very large populations are able to converge on the use of a particular word or grammatical construction without global coordination? Answering this question helps to understand why new language constructs usually propagate along an S-shaped curve with a rather sudden transition towards global agreement. It also helps to analyze and design new technologies that support or orchestrate self-organizing communication systems, such as recent social tagging systems for the web. The article introduces and studies a microscopic model of communicating autonomous agents performing language games without any central control. We show that the system undergoes a disorder/order transition, going trough a sharp symmetry breaking process to reach a shared set of conventions. Before the transition, the system builds up non-trivial scale-invariant correlations, for instance in the distribution of competing synonyms, which display a Zipf-like law. These correlations make the system ready for the transition towards shared conventions, which, observed on the time-scale of collective behaviors, becomes sharper and sharper with system size. This surprising result not only explains why human language can scale up to very large populations but also suggests ways to optimize artificial semiotic dynamics.} } @inproceedings{baronchelli06bootstrappingCommunication, author={Andrea Baronchelli and Vittorio Loreto and Luca Dall'Asta and Alain Barrat}, title={Bootstrapping communication in language games: strategy, topology and all that}, year={2006}, pages={11-18}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baronchelli06bootstrappingCommunication.html}, abstract={Semiotic dynamics is a fast growing field according to which language can be seen as an evolving and self-organizing system. In this paper we present a simple multi-agent framework able to account for the emergence of shared conventions in a population. Agents perform pairwise games and final consensus is reached without any outside control nor any global knowledge of the system. In particular we discuss how embedding the population in a non trivial interaction topology affects the behavior of the system and forces to carefully consider agents selection strategies. These results cast an interesting framework to address and study more complex issues in semiotic dynamics.} } @article{barr04conventionalCommunication, author={Dale J. Barr}, title={Establishing conventional communication systems: Is common knowledge necessary?}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={2004}, month={November-December}, volume={28}, number={6}, pages={937-962}, doi={10.1016/j.cogsci.2004.07.002}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/barr04conventionalCommunication.html}, keywords={Conventions; Common knowledge; Pragmatics; Communication; Multi-agent simulation}, abstract={How do communities establish shared communication systems? The Common Knowledge view assumes that symbolic conventions develop through the accumulation of common knowledge regarding communication practices among the members of a community. In contrast with this view, it is proposed that coordinated communication emerges a by-product of local interactions among dyads. A set of multi-agent computer simulations show that a population of 'egocentric' agents can establish and maintain symbolic conventions without common knowledge. In the simulations, convergence to a single conventional system was most likely and most efficient when agents updated their behavior on the basis of local rather than global, system-level information. The massive feedback and parallelism present in the simulations gave rise to phenomena that are often assumed to result from complex strategic processing on the part of individual agents. The implications of these findings for the development of theories of language use are discussed.} } @article{Bartlett05navigationToLanguage, author={Mark Bartlett and Dimitar Kazakov}, title={The origins of syntax: from navigation to language}, journal={Connection Science}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={17}, number={3-4}, pages={271-288}, doi={10.1080/09540090500282479}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Bartlett05navigationToLanguage.html}, keywords={Language faculty, Evolution, Navigation, Computer simulations}, abstract={This article suggests that the parser underlying human syntax may have originally evolved to assist navigation, a claim supported by computational simulations as well as evidence from neuroscience and psychology. We discuss two independent conjectures about the way in which navigation could have supported the emergence of this aspect of the human language faculty: firstly, by promoting the development of a parser; and secondly, by possibly providing a topic of discussion to which this parser could have been applied with minimum effort. The paper summarizes our previously published experiments and provides original results in support of the evolutionary advantages this type of communication can provide, compared with other foraging strategies. Another aspect studied in the experiments is the combination and range of environmental factors that make communication beneficial, focusing on the availability and volatility of resources. We suggest that the parser evolved for navigation might initially have been limited to handling regular languages, and describe a mechanism that may have created selective pressure for a context-free parser.} } @incollection{batali02theNegotiation, author={J. Batali}, title={The negotiation and acquisition of recursive grammars as a result of competition among exemplars}, year={2002}, chapter={5}, editor={Ted Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/batali02theNegotiation.html} } @incollection{batali98computationalSimulations, author={J. Batali}, title={Computational simulations of the emergence of grammar}, year={1998}, pages={405-426}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/batali98computationalSimulations.html}, abstract={A model of simple agents capable of sending and receiving se­ quences of characters and associating them with elements of a set of structured meanings is used to explore the emergence of systematic communication. In computational simulations, each member of a population alternates between learning to interpret the sequences sent by other members, and sending sequences that others learn to interpret. Eventually the agents develop highly coordinated communication systems that incorporate structural regularities reminiscent of those in human languages.} } @unpublished{batali95smallSignaling, author={J. Batali}, title={Small Signaling Systems can Evolve in the Absence of Benefit to the Information Sender}, year={1995}, note={Submitted to Artificial Life}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/batali95smallSignaling.html}, abstract={While it is of clear benefit for the members of a population to be able to make use of information made available by others, it is not as obvious that any benefit accrues to the sender of informative signals. If the sender of information receives no benefit from so doing, a good strategy would be to exploit the informative signals of others, while sending few useful signals. There is therefore a puzzle as to how coordinated signaling systems could have evolved in the absence of benefit to the information sender. These considerations are explored in a formal model of the evolution of populations of animals that possess signaling systems they inherit from their parents. In the model, an individual's reproductive fitness depends only its ability to correctly interpret the signals of others. No maximally coordinated or stable system will emerge under such conditions. However if there is a relatively small number (less than about 10) of distinct sigals to be sent, populations can reach dynamic equilibria in which a significant fraction of the signals are correctly interpreted.} } @inproceedings{batali94innateBiases, author={J. Batali}, title={Innate biases and critical periods: Combining evolution and learning in the acquisition of syntax}, year={1994}, pages={160-171}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={R. Brooks and P. Maes}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life IV}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/batali94innateBiases.html}, abstract={Recurrent neural networks can be trained to recognize strings generated by context-free grammars, but the ability of the networks to do so depends on their having an appropriate set of initial connection weights. Simulations of evolution were performed on populations of simple recurrent networks where the selection criterion was the ability of the networks to recognize strings generated by grammars. The networks evolved sets of initial weights from which they could reliably learn to recognize the strings. In order to recognize if a string was generated by a given context-free grammar, it is necessary to use a stack or counter to keep track of the depth of embedding in the string. The networks that evolved in our simulations are able to use the values passed along their recurrent connections for this purpose. Furthermore, populations of networks can evolve a bias towards learning the underlying regularities in a class of related languages. These results suggest a new explanation for the ``critical period'' effects observed in the acquisition of language and other cognitive faculties. Instead of being the result of an exogenous maturational process, the degraded acquisition ability may be the result of the values of innately specified initial weights diverging in response to training on spurious input.} } @incollection{bates99onThe, author={Elizabeth Bates and Judith C. Goodman}, title={On the Emergence of Grammar From the Lexicon}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bates99onThe.html} } @article{baxter06utteranceSelectionModel, author={Gareth J. Baxter and Richard A. Blythe and William Croft and Alan J. McKane}, title={Utterance Selection Model of Language Change}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2006}, volume={73}, pages={046118}, doi={10.1103/PhysRevE.73.046118}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/baxter06utteranceSelectionModel.html}, abstract={We present a mathematical formulation of a theory of language change. The theory is evolutionary in nature and has close analogies with theories of population genetics. The mathematical structure we construct similarly has correspondences with the Fisher-Wright model of population genetics, but there are significant differences. The continuous time formulation of the model is expressed in terms of a Fokker-Planck equation. This equation is exactly soluble in the case of a single speaker and can be investigated analytically in the case of multiple speakers who communicate equally with all other speakers and give their utterances equal weight. Whilst the stationary properties of this system have much in common with the single-speaker case, time-dependent properties are richer. In the particular case where linguistic forms can become extinct, we find that the presence of many speakers causes a two-stage relaxation, the first being a common marginal distribution that persists for a long time as a consequence of ultimate extinction being due to rare fluctuations.} } @book{beaken96theMaking, author={Mike Beaken}, title={The Making of Language}, year={1996}, publisher={Edinburgh University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/beaken96theMaking.html} } @inproceedings{beal02bootstrappingCommunications, author={Jacob Beal}, title={An Algorithm for Bootstrapping Communications}, year={2002}, month={June}, booktitle={International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/beal02bootstrappingCommunications.html}, abstract={In a distributed model of intelligence, peer components need to communicate with one another. I present a system which enables two agents connected by a thick twisted bundle of wires to bootstrap a simple communication system from observations of a shared environment. The agents learn a large vocabulary of symbols, as well as inflections on those symbols which allow thematic role-frames to be transmitted. Language acquisition time is rapid and linear in the number of symbols and inflections. The final communication system is robust and performance degrades gradually in the face of problems.} } @unpublished{beaver_simulatedEvolution, author={David Beaver}, title={Simulated Evolution of Language and Language Processors}, year={1997}, note={proposal}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/beaver_simulatedEvolution.html} } @unpublished{belletti99interviewChomsky, author={Adriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi}, title={AN INTERVIEW ON MINIMALISM with Noam Chomsky}, year={1999}, note={University of Siena, Nov 8-9, 1999 (rev: March 16, 2000)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belletti99interviewChomsky.html} } @article{belpaeme07bookreview, author={Tony Belpaeme}, title={Review of ``The Computational Nature of Language Learning and Evolution'' by Partha Niyogi, 2006}, journal={Computational Linguistics}, year={2007}, month={September}, volume={33}, number={3}, pages={429-431}, doi={10.1162/coli.2007.33.3.429}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme07bookreview.html} } @phdthesis{belpaeme02factorsInfluencing, author={Tony Belpaeme}, title={Factors influencing the origins of colour categories}, year={2002}, school={Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Artificial Intelligence Lab}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme02factorsInfluencing.html}, abstract={Humans perceive a continuous colour spectrum, but divide the spectrum into colour categories in order to reason and communicate about colour. There is an ongoing debate on whether these colour categories necessary for language communication are universal or culture-specific, whether these categories are genetically determined or learned, and whether there is a causal influence of language on colour category acquisition or not. The dissertation presents a number of models, each examining one of these outstanding issues. The models draw on techniques from multi-agent systems, machine learning and evolutionary programming. After considering the behaviour of each model, we conclude in favour of a cultural specificity of language categories and argue that learning under the influence of language is the most plausible explanation for their acquisition.} } @inproceedings{belpaeme02evolang, author={Tony Belpaeme}, title={Understanding the origins of colour categories through computational modelling}, year={2002}, editor={Maggie Tallerman}, booktitle={Proccedings of the 4th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme02evolang.html}, abstract={Human colour perception is continuous, but humans categorise the colour continuum and often label the resulting colour categories. The debate on whether colour categorisation is an individual process, or whether it is embedded in genetic constraints has not been settled yet. Further- more, as colour categories have colour names, it is claimed that language could have an influence on the categorisation. This paper reports on agent-based simulations that test the validity of dirent theories, and uncovers the weak and strong points of each. We conclude, from experi- ments using AI techniques, that colour categorisation is most likely to be cultural process.} } @inproceedings{belpaeme01reachingCoherent, author={T. Belpaeme}, title={Reaching coherent color categories through communication}, year={2001}, pages={41-48}, address={Amsterdam, The Netherlands}, editor={Krose, B. and et al.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th Belgium-Netherlands Conference on Artificial Intelligence (BNAIC'01)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme01reachingCoherent.html} } @inproceedings{belpaeme01simulatingThe, author={Tony Belpaeme}, title={Simulating the Formation of Color Categories}, year={2001}, pages={393-400}, address={Seattle, WA}, booktitle={IJCAI01}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme01simulatingThe.html}, keywords={Signal-meaning mappings}, abstract={This paper investigates the formation of color categories and color naming in a population of agents. The agents perceive and categorize color stimuli, and try to communicate about these perceived stim- uli. While doing so they adapt their internal representations to be more successful at conveying color meaning in future interactions. The agents have no access to global information or to the representa- tions of other agents; they only exchange word forms. The factors driving the population coherence are the shared environment and the interactions. The experiments show how agents can form a coherent lexicon of color terms and ­particularly­ how a coherent color categorization emerges through these linguistic interactions. The results are interpreted in the light of theories describing and explaining universal tendencies in human color categorization and color naming. At the same time, the experiments confirm aspects of the theories of Luc Steels who views language as a complex dynamic system, arising from selforganization and cultural interactions.} } @article{belpaeme05colorCategoriesABJ, author={Tony Belpaeme and Joris Bleys}, title={Explaining Universal Color Categories Through a Constrained Acquisition Process}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={2005}, volume={13}, number={4}, pages={293-310}, doi={10.1177/105971230501300404}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme05colorCategoriesABJ.html}, keywords={color,color categories,linguistic relativism,language game,universalism}, abstract={Color categories enjoy a special status among human perceptual categories as they exhibit a remarkable cross-cultural similarity. Many scholars have explained this universal character as being the result of an innate representation or an innate developmental program which all humans share. We will critically assess the available evidence, which is at best controversial, and we will suggest an alternative account for the universality of color categories based on linguistic transmission constrained by universal biases. We introduce a computational model to test our hypothesis and present results. These show that indeed the cultural acquisition of color categories together with mild constraints on the perception and categorical representation result in categories that have a distribution similar to human color categories.} } @inproceedings{belpaeme05colourfulLanguage_EELC, author={Tony Belpaeme and Joris Bleys}, title={Colourful language and colour categories}, year={2005}, booktitle={Second International Symposium on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/belpaeme05colourfulLanguage_EELC.html} } @techreport{bergstrom01thePeacock, author={Carl T. Bergstrom and Rustom Antia and Szabolcs Számadó and Michael Lachmann}, title={The Peacock, the Sparrow, and the Evolution of Human Language}, year={2001}, institution={Santa Fe Institute}, note={working paper #: 01-05-027}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bergstrom01thePeacock.html}, keywords={Language evolution, costly signalling, cues, punishment, dominance, sexual signals}, abstract={How did human language arise, and what accounts for its present structure? Over the past decade, there has been great interest -- and impressive progress -- in using evolutionary theory to address to these and related questions. In particular, a number of studies have shown that several key features of language could plausibly arise and be maintained by natural selection when individuals have coicident interests. However, these models have largely ignored a vital strategic component of the social context in which language is employed: individuals in real societies, both past and present, do not have fully coincident interests. Simultaneously, theoretical models of animal communication have confronted these strategic issues head-on, but they have largely focused on costly (Zahavian) signals. We approach this problem directly, asking the following question: Can language evolve and be maintained under common biological scenarios of non-coincident interest? Using a trio of examples -- the peacock, the sparrow, and human language -- we show that an explicit connection can be drawn between costly signalling theory as developed for the study of animal communication, and the cheap signals employed in human language. We argue that coincident interests are not a prerequisite for linguistic communication, and explore the structural features to be expected of languages employed in societies with non-coincident interests. We find that many of the results derived previously by assuming coincident interests will also be expected under less restrictive models of society.} } @inproceedings{ahmed-redaberrah99speciesAn, author={Ahmed-Reda Berrah and Rafael Laboissičre}, title={SPECIES: An Evolutionary Model for the Emergence of Phonetic Structures in an Artificial Society of Speech Agents}, year={1999}, pages={674-678}, address={Berlin}, editor={D. Floreano and J. Nicoud and F. Mondada}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ahmedredaberrah99speciesAn.html} } @incollection{berwick98languageEvolution, author={R. C. Berwick}, title={Language evolution and the minimalist program: The origins of syntax}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/berwick98languageEvolution.html} } @article{berwick97syntaxFacit, author={R. C. Berwick}, title={Syntax facit saltum}, journal={Journal of Neurolinguistics}, year={1997}, volume={10}, number={2/3}, pages={231-249}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/berwick97syntaxFacit.html} } @article{best_adaptiveValue, author={Michael L. Best}, title={Adaptive Value Within Natural Language Discourse}, journal={Interaction Studies}, year={2006}, volume={7}, number={1}, pages={1-15}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/best_adaptiveValue.html}, keywords={Evolution in communication, adaptation, population memetics, cultural evolution}, abstract={A trait is of adaptive value if it confers a fitness advantage to its possessor. Thus adaptivness is an ahistorical identification of a trait affording some selective advantage to an agent within some particular environment. In results reported here we identify a trait within natural language discourse as having adaptive value by computing a trait/fitness covariance; the possession of the trait correlates with the replication success of the trait's possessor. We show that the trait covaries with fitness across multiple unrelated discursive groups. In our analysis the trait in question is a particular statistically derived word?n? context, that is, a word set. Variation of the word?sage is measured as the relative presence of the word set within a particular text, that is, the percentage of the text devoted to this set of words. Fitness is measured as the rate in which the text is responded to, or replicates, within an online environment. Thus we are studying the micro?volutionary dynamics of natural language discourse.} } @phdthesis{best00microevolutionaryLanguage, author={M. L. Best}, title={Microevolutionary Language Theory}, year={2000}, school={School of Architecture and Planning, MIT}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/best00microevolutionaryLanguage.html}, abstract={A new microevolutionary theory of complex design within language is pro­ posed. Experiments were carried out that support the theory that complex functional design --- adaptive complexity --- accumulates due to the evolu­ tionary algorithm at the simplest levels within human natural language. A large software system was developed which identifies and tracks evolution­ ary dynamics within text discourse. With this system hundreds of examples of activity suggesting evolutionary significance were distilled from a text collection of many millions of words.

Research contributions include: (1) An active replicator model of micro­ evolutionary dynamics within natural language, (2) methods to distill active replicators offering evidence of evolutionary processes in action and at multiple linguistic levels (lexical, lexical co­occurrence, lexico­syntac­ tic, and syntactic), (3) a demonstration that language evolution and organic evolution are both examples of a single over­arching evolutionary algo­ rithm, (4) a set of tools to comparatively study language over time, and (5) methods to materially improve text retrieval.} } @article{best99meaningAs, author={Michael L. Best and Richard Pocklington}, title={Meaning as use: Transmission fidelity and evolution in NetNews}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={1999}, volume={196}, number={3}, pages={389-395}, doi={10.1006/jtbi.1998.0850}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/best99meaningAs.html} } @article{best97culturalEvolution, author={Michael L. Best and Richard Pocklington}, title={Cultural Evolution and Units of Selection in Replicating Text}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={1997}, month={September}, volume={188}, number={1}, pages={79-87}, doi={10.1006/jtbi.1997.0460}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/best97culturalEvolution.html}, abstract={The use of biological models and metaphors in studies of culture has a long and checkered history. While there are many superficial similarities between biological and cultural evolution, attempts to pin down such analogies have not been wholly successful. One limiting factor may be a lack of empirical evidence that the basic assumptions of the evolutionary model are met within a cultural system. We argue that a focus on the detection and description of the units of selection is an essential first step in constructing any evolutionary model. In this paper we outline the necessary connection between units of selection and evolution, describe the properties of a unit of selection, and introduce an empirical method for the detection of putative units of selection in a model cultural system: discourse within NetNews, a discussion system on the Internet.} } @book{bichakjian02languageIn, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Language in a Darwinian Perspective}, year={2002}, volume={3}, address={Frankfurt}, series={Bochum Publications in Evolutionary Cultural Semiotics}, publisher={Peter Lang}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian02languageIn.html} } @article{bichakjian99languageEvolution, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Language Evolution and the Complexity Criterion}, journal={Psycoloquy}, year={1999}, volume={10}, number={033}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian99languageEvolution.html}, keywords={complexity, Indo-European, language evolution, lateralization, neoteny, word order} } @incollection{bichakjian97languageEvolution, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Language Evolution and the Shift to Features Characteristic of the Left Hemis phere}, year={1997}, pages={42-51}, address={Stuttgart}, editor={Andreas Gather and Heinz Werner}, publisher={Steiner}, booktitle={Semiotische Prozesse und natürliche Sprache}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian97languageEvolution.html} } @incollection{bichakjian97evolutionAnd, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Evolution and the biological Correlates of Linguistic Features}, year={1997}, pages={31-42}, address={London}, editor={Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs}, publisher={Routledge}, booktitle={Archaeology and Language I. Theoretical and Methodological Orientations}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian97evolutionAnd.html} } @incollection{bichakjian96evolutionFrom, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Evolution: From Biology to Language}, year={1996}, editor={C.C. Magori and C. B. Saanane and F. Schrenk.}, publisher={}, booktitle={Four Million Years of Hominid Evolution in Africa: Papers in Honour of Dr. Mary Douglas Leakey's Outstanding Contribution in Palaeoanthropology.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian96evolutionFrom.html} } @incollection{bichakjian94languageEvolution, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Language Evolution: A Darwinian Process}, year={1994}, pages={269-92.}, address={Berlin}, editor={Winfried Nöth}, publisher={Mouton de Gruyter}, booktitle={Origins of Semiosis: Sign Evolution in Nature and Culture}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian94languageEvolution.html} } @article{bichakjian93theProblems, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={The problems of Extrapolating from Creole to DNA to Protolanguage: A reply to Derek Bickerton}, journal={ASCAP Newsletter}, year={1993}, volume={6}, number={2}, pages={12-15}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian93theProblems.html} } @incollection{bichakjian92languageEvolution, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Language Evolution: Evidence from Historical Linguistics}, year={1992}, pages={507-26}, address={Dordrecht, The Netherlands}, editor={Jan Wind and Bernard H.Bichakjian and Alberto Nocentini and Brunetto Chiarelli}, publisher={Kluwer}, booktitle={Language Origin: A Multidisciplinary Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian92languageEvolution.html} } @book{bichakjian88evolutionIn, author={Bernard H. Bichakjian}, title={Evolution in Language}, year={1988}, address={Ann Arbor, MI}, publisher={Karoma}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bichakjian88evolutionIn.html} } @article{bickerton07LINGUA, author={Derek Bickerton}, title={Language evolution: A brief guide for linguists}, journal={Lingua}, year={2007}, month={March}, volume={117}, number={3}, pages={510-526}, doi={10.1016/j.lingua.2005.02.006}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton07LINGUA.html}, keywords={Language evolution; Protolanguage; Holophrastic language; Social intelligence; Mirror neurons; FOXP2 gene}, abstract={For the benefit of linguists new to the field of language evolution, the author sets out the issues that need to be distinguished in any research on it. He offers a guided tour of contemporary approaches, including the work of linguists (Bickerton, Carstairs-McCarthy, Chomsky, Hurford, Jackendoff, Pinker, Wray), animal behaviour experts (Dunbar, Hauser, Premack, Savage-Rumbaugh), neurophysiologists (Arbib, Calvin), psychologists (Corballis, Donald), archaeologists (Davidson), and computer modellers (Batali, Kirby, Steels). He criticises the expectation that recent discoveries such as ‘mirror neurons’ and the FOXP2 gene will provide easy answers. He emphasises the extremely interdisciplinary nature of this field, and also the importance of involvement in it by linguists, after more than a century of neglect.} } @incollection{bickerton03symbolAndStructure, author={D. Bickerton}, title={Symbol and structure: a comprehensive framework for language evolution}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton03symbolAndStructure.html} } @incollection{bickerton02foragingVersus, author={Derek Bickerton}, title={Foraging Versus Social Intelligence in the Evolution of Protolanguage}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={10}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton02foragingVersus.html} } @article{bickerton02bookreview, author={D. Bickerton}, title={Review of ``The Origins of Vowel Systems'' by Bart de Boer, 2001}, journal={Selection}, year={2002}, month={November}, volume={3}, number={1}, pages={127-130}, doi={10.1556/Select.3.2002.1.10}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton02bookreview.html} } @incollection{bickerton00howProtolanguage, author={D. Bickerton}, title={How protolanguage became language}, year={2000}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton00howProtolanguage.html} } @incollection{bickerton98catastrophicEvolution, author={D. Bickerton}, title={Catastrophic evolution: The case for a single step from protolanguage to full human language}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton98catastrophicEvolution.html} } @article{bickerton91languageOrigins, author={Derek Bickerton}, title={Language origins and evolutionary plausibility}, journal={Language and Communication}, year={1991}, volume={11}, number={1-2}, pages={37-39}, doi={10.1016/0271-5309(91)90014-M}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton91languageOrigins.html} } @book{bickerton90languageAnd, author={D. Bickerton}, title={Language and Species}, year={1990}, publisher={University of Chicago Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton90languageAnd.html} } @article{bickerton84theLanguage, author={D. Bickerton}, title={The Language Bioprogram Hypothesis}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1984}, volume={7}, number={2}, pages={173-222}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton84theLanguage.html} } @book{bickerton81rootsOf, author={Derek Bickerton}, title={Roots of language}, year={1981}, address={Ann Arbor, MI}, publisher={Karoma}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bickerton81rootsOf.html} } @article{billard99experimentsIn, author={A. Billard and K. Dautenhahn}, title={Experiments in learning by imitation - grounding and use of communication in robotic agents}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={1999}, volume={7}, number={3/4}, pages={415-438}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/billard99experimentsIn.html} } @book{bloom00meaningsOfWordsBOOK, author={Paul Bloom}, title={How Children Learn the Meanings of Words}, year={2000}, publisher={MIT Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bloom00meaningsOfWordsBOOK.html} } @incollection{bloom99evolutionOf, author={P. Bloom}, title={Evolution of language}, year={1999}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={R. Wilson and F. Keil}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bloom99evolutionOf.html} } @incollection{bloom99theEvolution, author={P. Bloom}, title={The evolution of new cognitive capacities}, year={1999}, address={Oxford}, editor={M. Corballis}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The descent of mind}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bloom99theEvolution.html} } @article{blume93evolutionaryStability, author={Andreas Blume and Yong-Gwan Kim and Joel Sobel}, title={Evolutionary stability in games of communication}, journal={Games and Economic Behavior}, year={1993}, volume={5}, number={4}, pages={547-575}, doi={10.1006/game.1993.1031}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/blume93evolutionaryStability.html}, abstract={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.} } @inproceedings{Bodik03LanguageChange, author={Peter Bodik}, title={Language Change in Multi-generational Community}, year={2003}, booktitle={Proceedings of CALCI'03}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Bodik03LanguageChange.html}, abstract={Steels in [4] claims that both flux of agents (changing of agents in an experiment) and stochasticity in communication of agents are necessary for a spontaneous change in language. This paper argues that flux of agents alone could be responsible for a spontaneous change in language. This hypothesis is demonstrated by modeling language use through language games played in a population of evolving agents.} } @unpublished{Bodik03thesis, author={Peter Bodik}, title={Emergence of Language in Spatial Language Games}, year={2003}, note={diploma thesis}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Bodik03thesis.html} } @inproceedings{Bodik03SpatialLexicon, author={Peter Bodik and Martin Takac}, title={Formation of a Common Spatial Lexicon and its Change in a Community of Moving Agents}, year={2003}, publisher={IOS Press}, booktitle={Frontiers in AI: Proceedings of SCAI'03}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Bodik03SpatialLexicon.html}, abstract={This paper investigates factors influencing the establishment of a common spatial lexicon in a community of agents moving in a simulated environment. The model avoids some traditionally criticized features of other models of the emergence of a common lexicon such as the use of only cued representations, pre-defined fixed meanings shared by all agents, explicit meaning transmission and nonverbal feedback about the outcome of a game. While each agent forms its own concepts for distances and directions, coherent lexicon emerges enabling agents to localize objects in the environment based on their spatial description. Factors necessary for language change are then investigated in an experiment where agents join/leave the community and the results are compared to those of the related model of Steels.} } @mastersthesis{bontempo04, author={James BonTempo}, title={Exploring the dynamics of language change in finite populations}, year={2004}, school={University of Chicago}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bontempo04.html} } @article{botha02eye, author={Rudolf P. Botha}, title={Did language evolve like the vertebrate eye?}, journal={Language and Communication}, year={2002}, month={April}, volume={22}, number={2}, pages={131-158}, doi={10.1016/S0271-5309(01)00020-9}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/botha02eye.html}, keywords={Language evolution; Adaptation; Natural selection; Form-function `misfit'; Complex adaptive design; Adaptive complexity}, abstract={On various modern accounts, human language or some of its features evolved like the vertebrate eye by natural selection. The present article offers a critical appraisal of the way in which this idea is articulated in Pinker and Bloom's (1990) selectionist account of language evolution—the most sophisticated account of its kind. It is argued that this account is less than insightful since it fails to draw some of the conceptual distinctions that are central to a certain requirement for such selectionist accounts. The requirement states that language can be accorded the evolutionary status of an adaptation by natural selection if it exhibits complex adaptive design for some evolutionary significant function.} } @incollection{brighton05minimumDescription, author={Henry Brighton}, title={Linguistic Evolution and Induction by Minimum Description Length}, year={2005}, editor={Werning, M. and Machery, E.}, publisher={Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag}, booktitle={The Compositionality of Concepts and Meanings: Applications to Linguistics, Psychology and Neuroscience}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton05minimumDescription.html} } @phdthesis{brighton03phdthesis, author={Henry Brighton}, title={Simplicity as a Driving Force in Linguistic Evolution}, year={2003}, school={Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, The University of Edinburgh}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton03phdthesis.html}, abstract={How did language come to have its characteristic structure? Many argue that by understanding those parts of our biological machinery relevant to language, we can explain why language is the way it is. If the hallmarks of language are simply properties of our biological machinery, elicited through the process of language acquisition, then such an explanatory route is adequate.

As soon as we admit the possibility that knowledge of language is learned, in the sense that language acquisition is a process involving inductive generalisations, then an explanatory inadequacy arises. Any thorough explanation of the characteristic structure of language must now explain why the input to the language acquisition process has certain properties and not others. This thesis builds on recent work that proposes that the linguistic stimulus has certain structural properties that arise as a result of linguistic evolution. Here, languages themselves adapt to fit the task of learning: they reflect an accumulated structural residue laid down by previous generations of language users.

Using computational models of linguistic evolution I explore the relationship be- tween language induction and generalisation based on a simplicity principle, and the linguistic evolution of compositional structures. The two main contributions of this thesis are as follows. Firstly, using a model of induction based on the minimum description length principle, I address the question of linguistic evolution resulting from a bias towards compression. Secondly, I carry out a thorough examination of the parameter space affecting the cultural transmission of language, and note that the conditions for linguistic evolution towards compositional structure correspond to (1) specific levels of semantic complexity, and (2), induction based on sparse language exposure.

Ultimately, the story of the evolution of language in humans must depend on an account of the genetic evolution of the biological machinery underlying language. Rather than explicitly encoding the observed constraints on language, I argue that any explanation based on biological evolution should instead aim to explain how the conditions for linguistic evolution, outlined above, came about.} } @article{brighton02compositionalSyntax, author={H. Brighton}, title={Compositional Syntax from Cultural Transmission}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={2002}, volume={8}, number={1}, pages={25-54}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton02compositionalSyntax.html}, keywords={Language, Evolution, Syntax, Learning, Compression, Culture}, abstract={A growing body of work demonstrates that syntactic structure can evolve in populations of genetically identical agents. Traditional explanations for the emergence of syntactic structure employ an argument based on genetic evolution: syntactic structure is specified by an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Knowledge of language is complex, yet the data available to the language learner is sparse. This incongruous situation, termed the ``poverty of the stimulus'', is accounted for by placing much of the specification of language in the LAD. The assumption is that the characteristic structure of language is somehow coded genetically. The effect of language evolution on the cultural substrate, in the absence of genetic change, is not addressed by this explanation. We show that the poverty of the stimulus introduces a pressure for compositional language structure when we consider language evolution resulting from iterated observational learning. We use a mathematical model to map the space of parameters that result in compositional syntax. Our hypothesis is that compositional syntax cannot be explained by understanding the LAD alone: compositionality is an emergent property of the dynamics resulting from sparse language exposure.} } @article{brighton_visualizing_ALife, author={H. Brighton and S. Kirby}, title={Understanding Linguistic Evolution by Visualizing the Emergence of Topographic Mappings}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={2006}, month={Spring}, volume={12}, number={2}, pages={229-242}, doi={10.1162/106454606776073323}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton_visualizing_ALife.html}, keywords={Language, evolution, visualization, replicators, learning}, abstract={We show how cultural selection for learnability during the process of linguistic evolution can be visualized using a simple iterated learning model. Computational models of linguistic evolution typically focus on the nature of, and conditions for, stable states. We take a novel approach and focus on understanding the process of linguistic evolution itself. What kind of evolutionary system is this process? Using visualization techniques, we explore the nature of replicators in linguistic evolution, and argue that replicators correspond to local regions of regularity in the mapping between meaning and signals. Based on this argument, we draw parallels between phenomena observed in the model and linguistic phenomena observed across languages. We then go on to identify issues of replication and selection as key points of divergence in the parallels between the processes of linguistic evolution and biological evolution.} } @inproceedings{brighton01theSurvival, author={H. Brighton and S. Kirby}, title={The Survival of the Smallest: Stability Conditions for the Cultural Evolution of Compositional Language}, year={2001}, pages={592-601}, editor={J. Kelemen and P. Sosík}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={ECAL01}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton01theSurvival.html}, keywords={computational simulation, language evolution, language acquisition, machine learning}, abstract={Recent work in the field of computational evolutionary linguistics suggests that the dynamics arising from the cultural evolution of language can explain the emergence of syntactic structure. We build on this work by introducing a model of language acquisition based on the Minimum Description Length Principle. Our experiments show that compositional syntax is most likely to occur under two conditions specific to hominids: (i) A complex meaning space structure, and (ii) the poverty of the stimulus.} } @techreport{brighton01meaningSpace, author={H. Brighton and S. Kirby}, title={Meaning Space Structure Determines the Stability of Culturally Evolved Compositional Language}, year={2001}, institution={Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, The University of Edinburgh}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton01meaningSpace.html}, keywords={cultural evolution, machine learning, language evolution, dynamical systems} } @incollection{brighton_threehypotheses, author={H. Brighton and S. Kirby and K. Smith}, title={Cultural Selection for Learnability: Three principles underlying the view that language adapts to be learnable}, year={2005}, chapter={13}, editor={Tallerman, M.}, publisher={Oxford: Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton_threehypotheses.html} } @inproceedings{smith_situatedCognition, author={Henry Brighton and Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith}, title={Situated cognition and the role of multi-agent models in explaining language structure}, year={2003}, pages={88-109}, editor={D. Kudenko and E. Alonso and D. Kazakov}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Adaptation and Multi-Agent Learning}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/smith_situatedCognition.html}, abstract={How and where are the universal features of language specified? We consider language users as situated agents acting as conduits for the cultural transmission of language. Using multi-agent computational models we show that certain hallmarks of language are adaptive in the context of cultural transmission. This observation requires us to reconsider the role of innateness in explaining the characteristic structure of language. The relationship between innate bias and the universal features of language becomes opaque when we consider that significant linguistic evolution can occur as a result of cultural transmission.} } @article{brighton05review, author={Henry Brighton and Kenny Smith and Simon Kirby}, title={Language as an evolutionary system}, journal={Physics of Life Reviews}, year={2005}, month={September}, volume={2}, number={3}, pages={177-226}, doi={10.1016/j.plrev.2005.06.001}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brighton05review.html}, keywords={Language; Evolution; Artificial life; Culture; Adaptation; Replication}, abstract={John Maynard Smith and EöSzathmá argued that human language signified the eighth major transition in evolution: human language marked a new form of information transmission from one generation to another [Maynard Smith J, Szathmá E. The major transitions in evolution. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press; 1995]. According to this view language codes cultural information and as such forms the basis for the evolution of complexity in human culture. In this article we develop the theory that language also codes information in another sense: languages code information on their own structure. As a result, languages themselves provide information that influences their own survival. To understand the consequences of this theory we discuss recent computational models of linguistic evolution. Linguistic evolution is the process by which languages themselves evolve. This article draws together this recent work on linguistic evolution and highlights the significance of this process in understanding the evolution of linguistic complexity. Our conclusions are that: (1) the process of linguistic transmission constitutes the basis for an evolutionary system, and (2), that this evolutionary system is only superficially comparable to the process of biological evolution.} } @inproceedings{briscoe06powerLaw, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Language learning, power laws and sexual selection}, year={2006}, pages={19-26}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe06powerLaw.html}, abstract={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.} } @incollection{briscoe02, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Coevolution of the language faculty and language(s) with decorrelated encodings}, year={2005}, chapter={14}, editor={Tallerman, M.}, publisher={Oxford: Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe02.html} } @incollection{briscoe02grammaticalAssimilation, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Grammatical Assimilation}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe02grammaticalAssimilation.html} } @incollection{briscoe02introduction, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Introduction}, year={2002}, chapter={1}, editor={Ted Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe02introduction.html} } @book{briscoe-2002-editedbook, title={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, year={2002}, editor={E. J. Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe2002editedbook.html} } @incollection{briscoe02grammaticalAcquisition, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Grammatical Acquisition and Linguistic Selection}, year={2002}, chapter={9}, editor={Ted Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe02grammaticalAcquisition.html} } @unpublished{briscoe00anEvolutionary, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={An evolutionary approach to (logistic-like) language change}, year={2000}, note={Draft of DIGS6 talk, Maryland, 23rd May 2000 and Univ of Sussex, 8th Dec 2000}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe00anEvolutionary.html} } @incollection{briscoe00evolutionaryPerspectives, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Evolutionary Perspectives on Diachronic Syntax}, year={2000}, editor={Pintzuk, S. and Tsoulas, G. and Warner, A.}, publisher={}, booktitle={Diachronic Syntax: Models and Mechanisms}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe00evolutionaryPerspectives.html} } @article{briscoe00grammaticalAcquisition, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Grammatical Acquisition: Inductive Bias and Coevolution of Language and the Language Acquisition Device}, journal={Language}, year={2000}, volume={76}, number={2}, pages={245-296}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe00grammaticalAcquisition.html} } @unpublished{briscoe00notes, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Macro and micro models of linguistic evolution}, year={2000}, note={unpublished notes on talk presented at The 3rd Int. Conf. on Lg. and Evolution, Paris, April, 2000.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe00notes.html} } @article{briscoe99theAcquisition, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={The Acquisition of Grammar in an Evolving Population of Language Agents}, journal={Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence}, year={1999}, volume={3}, note={Section B: Selected Articles from the Machine Intelligence 16 Workshop}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe99theAcquisition.html} } @inproceedings{briscoe98languageAs, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Coevolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition Device}, year={1998}, editor={H. van Halteren and et al.}, booktitle={Proceedings of Eighth Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Conference}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe98languageAs.html} } @inproceedings{briscoe97acl, author={E. J. Briscoe}, title={Co-evolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition Device}, year={1997}, publisher={Morgan Kaufmann}, booktitle={Proc. of 35th Assoc. for Comp. Ling.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/briscoe97acl.html} } @inproceedings{brooks05cladistics, author={Daniel R. Brooks and Esra Erdem and James W. Minett and Don Ringe}, title={Character-Based Cladistics and Answer Set Programming}, year={2005}, pages={37--51}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages (PADL)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brooks05cladistics.html}, abstract={We describe the reconstruction of a phylogeny for a set of taxa, with a character-based cladistics approach, in a declarative knowledge representation formalism, and show how to use computational methods of answer set programming to generate conjectures about the evolution of the given taxa. We have applied this computational method in two domains: to historical analysis of languages, and to historical analysis of parasite-host systems. In particular, using this method, we have computed some plausible phylogenies for Chinese dialects, for Indo-European language groups, and for Alcataenia species. Some of these plausible phylogenies are different from the ones computed by other software. Using this method, we can easily describe domain specific information (e.g. temporal and geographical constraints), and thus prevent the reconstruction of some phylogenies that are not plausible.} } @article{broom02entropy, author={Mark Broom}, title={Using Game Theory to Model the Evolution of Information: an Illustrative Game}, journal={Entropy}, year={2002}, volume={4}, number={2}, pages={35-46}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/broom02entropy.html}, keywords={Game theory, evolution, evolutionarily stable strategy, evolution of information, entropy, animal communication, dominance}, abstract={The application of information theory to biology can be broadly split into three areas: (i) At the level of the genome; considering the storage of information using the genetic code. (ii) At the level of the individual animal; communication between animals passes information from one animal to another (usually, but not always, for mutual benefit). (iii) At the level of the population; the diversity of a population can be measured using population entropy. This paper is concerned with the second area. We consider the evolution of an individual's ability to obtain and process information using the ideas of evolutionary game theory. An important part of game theory is the definition of the information available to the participants. Such games tend to treat information as a static quantity whilst behaviour is strategic. We consider game theoretic modelling where use of information is strategic and can thus evolve. A simple model is developed which shows how the information acquiring ability of animals can evolve through time. The model predicts that it is likely that there is an optimal level of information for any particular contest, rather than more information being inherently better. The total information required for optimal performance corresponded to approximately the same entropy, regardless of the value of the individual pieces of information concerned.} } @article{brown06phonologyEvolution, author={J.C. Brown and Chris Golston}, title={Embedded structure and the evolution of phonology}, journal={Interaction Studies}, year={2006}, volume={7}, number={1}, pages={17-41}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/brown06phonologyEvolution.html}, keywords={consonants; embedding; language evolution; phonology; vowels}, abstract={This paper explores a structure ubiquitous in grammar, the embedded tree, and develops a proposal for how such embedded structures played a fundamental role in the evolution of consonants and vowels. Assuming that linguistic capabilities emerged as a cognitive system from a simply reactive system and that such a transition required the construction of an internal mapping of the system body (cf. Cruse 2003), we propose that this mapping was determined through articulation and acoustics. By creating distinctions between articulators in the vocal tract or by acoustic features of sounds, and then embedding these distinctions, the various possible properties of consonants and vowels emerged. These embedded distinctions represent paradigmatic options for the production of sounds, which provide the basic building blocks for prosodic structure. By anchoring these embedded structures in the anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract, the evolution of phonology itself can be explained by extra-linguistic factors.} } @incollection{bryant06phylogeneticMethods, author={David Bryant}, title={Radiation and Network Breaking in Polynesian Linguistics}, year={2006}, pages={111-}, chapter={9}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bryant06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @inproceedings{bullock97anExploration, author={Seth Bullock}, title={An Exploration of Signalling Behaviour by both Analytic and Simulation Means for both Discrete and Continuous Models}, year={1997}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={Husbands, P. and Harvey, I.}, publisher={MIT Press.}, booktitle={ECAL97}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bullock97anExploration.html} } @book{burling05talkingApe, author={Robbins Burling}, title={The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved}, year={2005}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/burling05talkingApe.html} } @incollection{burling02theSlow, author={Robbins Burling}, title={The Slow Growth of Language in Children}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={14}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/burling02theSlow.html} } @incollection{burling00comprehensionProduction, author={Robbins Burling}, title={Comprehension, production and conventionalization in the origins of language}, year={2000}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/burling00comprehensionProduction.html} } @incollection{burling99motivation, author={Robbins Burling}, title={Motivation, Conventionalization, and Arbitrariness in the Origin of Language}, year={1999}, chapter={9}, editor={Barbara J. King}, publisher={School of American Research Press}, booktitle={The Origins of Language: What Nonhuman Primates Can Tell Us}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/burling99motivation.html} } @article{buzing05jasss, author={P.C. Buzing and A.E. Eiben and M.C. Schut}, title={Emerging communication and cooperation in evolving agent societies}, journal={Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation}, year={2005}, volume={8}, number={1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/buzing05jasss.html}, keywords={Social Simulation, Communication, Cooperation, Artificial Societies}, abstract={The main contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it presents a new software system for empirical investigations of evolving agent societies in SugarScape like environments. Second, it introduces a conceptual framework for modeling cooperation in an artificial society. In this framework the environmental pressure to cooperate is controllable by a single parameter, thus allowing systematic investigations of system behavior under varying circumstances. Third, it reports upon results from experiments that implemented and tested environments based upon this new model of cooperation. The results show that the pressure to cooperate leads to the evolution of communication skills facilitating cooperation. Furthermore, higher levels of cooperation pressure lead to the emergence of increased communication.} } @inproceedings{buzing03ECAL, author={P.C. Buzing and A.E. Eiben and M.C. Schut}, title={Evolving Agent Societies with VUScape}, year={2003}, pages={434-441}, booktitle={ECAL03}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/buzing03ECAL.html}, abstract={The main contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it presents a new system for empirical investigations of evolving agent societies in SugarScapelike environments, which improves existing Sugarscape testbeds. Secondly, we introduce a framework for modelling communication and cooperation in an animal society. In this framework the environmental pressure to communicate and cooperate is controllable by a single parameter. We perform several experiments with different values for this parameter and observe some surprising outcomes.} } @incollection{bybee_cognitiveProcesses, author={J. L. Bybee}, title={Cognitive processes in grammaticalization}, year={2002}, address={New Jersey}, editor={M. Thomasello}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.}, booktitle={The New Psychology of Language,volume II}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee_cognitiveProcesses.html} } @unpublished{bybee01mechanismsOf, author={J. L. Bybee}, title={Mechanisms of change in grammaticization:the role of frequency}, year={2001}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee01mechanismsOf.html} } @article{bybee98aFunctionalist, author={Joan L. Bybee}, title={A Functionalist Approach to Grammar and its Evolution}, journal={Evolution of Communication}, year={1998}, volume={2}, number={2}, pages={249-278}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee98aFunctionalist.html} } @incollection{bybee88morphologyAs, author={J. L. Bybee}, title={Morphology as lexical organization}, year={1988}, pages={119-141}, address={San Diego}, editor={M. Hammond and M. Noonan}, publisher={Academic Press}, booktitle={Theoretical morphology}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee88morphologyAs.html} } @book{bybee85morphologyA, author={J. L. Bybee}, title={Morphology: A study of the relation between meaning and form}, year={1985}, address={Philadelphia}, publisher={Benjamins}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee85morphologyA.html} } @book{bybee_frequencyAnd, author={J. L. Bybee and Paul Hopper}, title={Frequency and the Emergence of Language Structure}, year={2001}, address={Amsterdam}, publisher={John Benjamins}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee_frequencyAnd.html} } @book{bybee94theEvolution, author={J. L. Bybee and Revere Perkins and William Pagliuca}, title={The evolution of grammar: tense, aspect and modality in the language of the world}, year={1994}, address={Chicago}, publisher={University of Chicago Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/bybee94theEvolution.html} } @incollection{Cace06EELC, author={Ivana Cace and Joanna J. Bryson}, title={Agent Based Modelling of Communication Costs: Why Information can be Free}, year={2006}, address={London}, editor={C. Lyon and C. L Nehaniv and A. Cangelosi}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, note={in press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Cace06EELC.html} } @book{calvin00linguaEx, author={William H. Calvin and Derek Bickerton}, title={Lingua ex Machina}, year={2000}, publisher={MIT Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/calvin00linguaEx.html} } @article{cangelosi07LanguageSciences, author={Angelo Cangelosi}, title={Adaptive Agent Modeling of Distributed Language: Investigations on the Effects of Cultural Variation and Internal Action Representations}, journal={Language Sciences}, year={2007}, doi={10.1016/j.langsci.2006.12.026}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi07LanguageSciences.html}, keywords={Symbol grounding; Language evolution; Computational modeling; Neural networks; Embodied cognition}, abstract={In this paper we present the `grounded adaptive agent' computational framework for studying the emergence of communication and language. This modeling framework is based on simulations of population of cognitive agents that evolve linguistic capabilities by interacting with their social and physical environment (internal and external symbol grounding). These models provide an integrative vision of language where the linguistic abilities of cognitive agents strictly depend on other social, sensorimotor, neural and cognitive capabilities. Here language is not seen as an isolated and dedicated symbol processing system, but rather as a heterogeneous set of artifacts implicated in cultural and cognitive activities. The proposed modeling approach is also closely related to embodied cognition theories of the grounding of language in the organism's perceptual and motor systems.} } @article{cangelosi06PragmaticsAndCognition, author={Angelo Cangelosi}, title={The Grounding and Sharing of Symbols}, journal={Pragmatics and Cognition}, year={2006}, volume={14}, number={2}, pages={275-285}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi06PragmaticsAndCognition.html}, keywords={artificial life, cognitive modeling, neural networks, symbol grounding}, abstract={The double function of language, as a social/communicative means, and as an individual/cognitive capability, derives from its fundamental property that allows us to internally re-represent the world we live in. This is possible through the mechanism of symbol grounding, i.e. the ability to associate entities and states in the external and internal world with internal categorical representations. The symbol grounding mechanism, as language, has both an individual and a social component. The individual component, called the “Physical Symbol Grounding”, refers to the ability of each individual to create an intrinsic link between world entities and internal categorical representations. The social component, called “Social Symbol Grounding”, refers to the collective negotiation for the selection of shared symbols (words) and their grounded meanings. The paper discusses these two aspects of symbol grounding in relation to distributed cognition, using examples from cognitive modeling research on grounded agents and robots.} } @article{cangelosi05PlymouthUnivResearch, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Evolving cognitive systems: Adaptive behaviour and cognition research at the University of Plymouth}, journal={Cognitive Processing}, year={2005}, volume={6}, pages={202-207}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi05PlymouthUnivResearch.html} } @incollection{cangelosi05groundingSymbols, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Approaches to Grounding Symbols in Perceptual and Sensorimotor Categories}, year={2005}, pages={719-737}, editor={H. Cohen and C. Lefebvre}, publisher={Elsevier}, booktitle={Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi05groundingSymbols.html} } @article{Cangelosi05neuralAdaptiveAgentModels, author={Angelo Cangelosi}, title={The emergence of language: neural and adaptive agent models}, journal={Connection Science}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={17}, number={3-4}, pages={185-190}, doi={10.1080/09540090500177471}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Cangelosi05neuralAdaptiveAgentModels.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi04sab, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={The sensorimotor bases of linguistic structure: Experiments with grounded adaptive agents}, year={2004}, month={July}, pages={487-496}, address={Los Angeles}, editor={S. Schaal and et al.}, publisher={Cambridge MA, MIT Press}, booktitle={SAB04}, note={Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour: From Animals to Animats 8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi04sab.html} } @article{cangelosi03braincognition, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Neural network models of category learning and language}, journal={Brain and Cognition}, year={2003}, volume={53}, number={2}, pages={106-107}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi03braincognition.html} } @article{cangelosi03aisb, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Grounding language in sensorimotor and cognitive categories}, journal={AISB Quarterly}, year={2003}, volume={115}, pages={5-8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi03aisb.html} } @article{cangelosi01evolutionOf, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Evolution of communication and language using signals, symbols, and words}, journal={IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation}, year={2001}, month={April}, volume={5}, number={2}, pages={93-101}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi01evolutionOf.html}, abstract={This paper describes different types of models for the evolution of communication and language. It uses the distinction between signals, symbols, and words for the analysis of evolutionary models of language. In particular, it show how evolutionary computation techniques, such as Artificial Life, can be used to study the emergence of syntax and symbols from simple communication signals. Initially, a computational model that evolves repertoires of isolated signals is presented. This study has simulated the emer- gence of signals for naming foods in a population of foragers. This type of model studies communication systems based on simple signal-object associations. Subsequently, models that study the emergence of grounded symbols are discussed in general, including a detailed description of a work on the evolution of simple syntactic rules. This model focuses on the emergence of symbol-symbol relationships in evolved languages. Finally, computational models of syntax acquisition and evolution are discussed. These different types of computational models provide an operational definition of the signal/symbol/word distinction. The simulation and analysis of these types of models will help understanding the role of symbols and symbol acquisition in the origin of language.} } @inproceedings{cangelosi99modelingThe, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Modeling the evolution of communication: From stimulus associations to grounded symbolic associations}, year={1999}, pages={654-663}, address={Berlin}, editor={D. Floreano and J. Nicoud and F. Mondada}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi99modelingThe.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi99evolutionOf, author={A. Cangelosi}, title={Evolution of communication using combination of grounded symbols in populations of neural networks}, year={1999}, pages={4365-4368}, address={Washington, DC}, publisher={IEEE Press}, booktitle={Proceedings of IJCNN99 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (vol. 6)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi99evolutionOf.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi04neuralComputationPsychology, author={A. Cangelosi and K.R. Coventry and R. Rajapakse and A. Bacon and S.N. Newstead}, title={Grounding language into perception: A connectionist model of spatial terms and vague quantifiers}, year={2005}, month={May}, editor={A. Cangelosi and G. Bugmann and R. Borisyuk}, publisher={Singapore: World Scientific}, booktitle={Modelling Language, Cognition and Action: Proceedings of the 9th Neural Computation and Psychology Workshop}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi04neuralComputationPsychology.html} } @incollection{cangelosi01symbolGrounding, author={Angelo Cangelosi and Alberto Greco and Stevan Harnad}, title={Symbol Grounding and the Symbolic Theft Hypothesis}, year={2002}, pages={191-210}, address={London}, chapter={9}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi01symbolGrounding.html} } @article{cangelosi00fromRobotic, author={A. Cangelosi and A. Greco and S. Harnad}, title={From robotic toil to symbolic theft: Grounding transfer from entry-level to higher-level categories}, journal={Connection Science}, year={2000}, volume={12}, number={2}, pages={143-162}, doi={10.1080/09540090050129763}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi00fromRobotic.html}, keywords={SYMBOL GROUNDING CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION NEURAL NETWORKS PATTERN RECOGNITION}, abstract={Neural network models of categorical perception (compression of withincategory similarity and dilation of between-category differences) are applied to the symbol-grounding problem (of how to connect symbols with meanings) by connecting analogue sensorimotor projections to arbitrary symbolic representations via learned category-invariance detectors in a hybrid symbolic/non-symbolic system. Our nets are trained to categorize and name 50 2 50 pixel images (e.g. circles, ellipses, squares and rectangles) projected on to the receptive field of a 7 2 7 retina. They first learn to do prototype matching and then entry-level naming for the four kinds of stimuli, grounding their names directly in the input patterns via hidden-unit representations ('sensorimotor toil'). We show that a higher-level categorization (e.g. 'symmetric' versus 'asymmetric') can be learned in two very different ways: either (1) directly from the input, just as with the entry-level categories (i.e. by toil); or (2) indirectly, from Boolean combinations of the grounded category names in the form of propositions describing the higher-order category ('symbolic theft'). We analyse the architectures and input conditions that allow grounding (in the form of compression/ separation in internal similarity space) to be 'transferred' in this second way from directly grounded entry-level category names to higher-order category names. Such hybrid models have implications for the evolution and learning of language.} } @article{cangelosi02theAdaptive, author={A. Cangelosi and S. Harnad}, title={The adaptive advantage of symbolic theft over sensorimotor toil: Grounding language in perceptual categories}, journal={Evolution of Communication}, year={2001}, volume={4}, number={1}, pages={117-142}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi02theAdaptive.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi06IJCNN, author={A. Cangelosi and E. Hourdakis and V. Tikhanoff}, title={Language acquisition and symbol grounding transfer with neural networks and cognitive robots}, year={2006}, pages={1576-1582}, address={Vancouver}, booktitle={IJCNN 2006}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi06IJCNN.html}, abstract={Neural networks have been proposed as an ideal cognitive modeling methodology to deal with the symbol grounding problem. More recently, such neural network approaches have been incorporated in studies based on cognitive agents and robots. In this paper we present a new model of symbol grounding transfer in cognitive robots. Language learning simulations demonstrate that robots are able to acquire new action concepts via linguistic instructions. This is achieved by autonomously transferring the grounding from directly grounded action names to new higher-order composite actions. The robot's neural network controller permits such a grounding transfer. The implications for such a modeling approach in cognitive science and autonomous robotics are discussed.} } @article{cangelosi_parisi_BrainLanguage, author={A. Cangelosi and D. Parisi}, title={The processing of verbs and nouns in neural networks: Insights from Synthetic Brain Imaging}, journal={Brain and Language}, year={2004}, volume={89}, number={2}, pages={401-408}, doi={10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00353-5}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi_parisi_BrainLanguage.html}, abstract={The paper presents a computational model of language in which linguistic abilities evolve in organisms that interact with an environment. Each individualżs behavior is controlled by a neural network and we study the consequences in the networkżs internal functional organization of learning to process different classes of words. Agents are selected for reproduction according to their ability to manipulate objects and to understand nouns (objectsż names) and verbs (manipulation tasks). The weights of the agentsż neural networks are evolved using a genetic algorithm. Synthetic brain imaging techniques are then used to examine the functional organization of the neural networks. Results show that nouns produce more integrated neural activity in the sensory-processing hidden layer, while verbs produce more integrated synaptic activity in the layer where sensory information is integrated with proprioceptive input. Such findings are qualitatively compared with human brain imaging data that indicate that nouns activate more the posterior areas of the brain related to sensory and associative processing, while verbs activate more the anterior motor areas.} } @book{cangelosi-parisi-2001-editedbook, title={Simulating the evolution of language}, year={2002}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosiparisi2001editedbook.html} } @incollection{cangelosi01computerSimulation, author={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, title={Computer Simulation: A New Scientific Approach to the Study of Language Evolution}, year={2002}, pages={3-28}, address={London}, chapter={1}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi01computerSimulation.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi01howNouns, author={A. Cangelosi and D. Parisi}, title={How nouns and verbs differentially affect the behavior of artificial organisms}, year={2001}, pages={170-175}, address={London}, editor={Johanna D. Moore and Keith Stenning}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi01howNouns.html}, abstract={This paper presents an Artificial Life and Neural Network (ALNN) model for the evolution of syntax. The simulation methodology provides a unifying approach for the study of the evolution of language and its interaction with other behavioral and neural factors. The model uses an object manipulation task to simulate the evolution of language based on a simple verb-noun rule. The analyses of results focus on the interaction between language and other non-linguistic abilities, and on the neural control of linguistic abilities. The model shows that the beneficial effects of language on non-linguistic behavior are explained by the emergence of distinct internal representation patterns for the processing of verbs and nouns.} } @article{cangelosi98theEmergence, author={A. Cangelosi and D. Parisi}, title={The emergence of a language in an evolving population of neural networks}, journal={Connection Science}, year={1998}, volume={10}, number={2}, pages={83-97}, doi={10.1080/095400998116512}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi98theEmergence.html}, keywords={Language evolution, genetic algorithm, artificial life, symbol grounding}, abstract={The evolution of language implies the parallel evolution of an ability to respond appropriately to signals (language understanding) and an ability to produce the appropriate signals in the appropriate circumstances (language production). When linguistic signals are produced to inform other individuals, individuals that respond appropriately to these signals may increase their reproductive chances but it is less clear what the reproductive advantage is for the language producers. We present simulations in which populations of neural networks living in an environment evolve a simple language with an informative function. Signals are produced to help other individuals categorize edible and poisonous mushrooms, in order to decide whether to approach or avoid encountered mushrooms. Language production, while not under direct evolutionary pressure, evolves as a byproduct of the independently evolving perceptual ability to categorize mushrooms.} } @article{cangelosi06embodiedModel, author={A. Cangelosi and T. Riga}, title={An Embodied Model for Sensorimotor Grounding and Grounding Transfer: Experiments with Epigenetic Robots}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={2006}, volume={30}, number={4}, pages={673-689}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi06embodiedModel.html}, keywords={Symbol grounding, epigenetic robotics, human-robot interaction, embodied cognition, language evolution, imitation, grounding transfer}, abstract={The grounding of symbols in computational models of linguistic abilities is one of the fundamental properties of psychologically-plausible cognitive models. This paper presents an embodied model for the grounding of language in action based on epigenetic robots. Epigenetic robotics is one of the new cognitive modeling approaches to modeling autonomous mental development. The robot model is based on an integrative vision of language, in which linguistic abilities are strictly dependent on, and grounded in, other behaviors and skills. It uses simulated robots that learn through imitation the names of basic actions. Robots also learn higher-order action concepts through the process of grounding transfer. The simulation demonstrates how new, higher-order behavioral abilities can be autonomously built upon previously-grounded basic action categories, following linguistic interaction with human users.} } @inproceedings{cangelosi04languageEmergence, author={Angelo Cangelosi and Thomas Riga and Barbara Giolito and Davide Marocco}, title={Language emergence and grounding in sensorimotor agents and robots}, year={2004}, address={Kanazawa, Japan}, booktitle={First International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi04languageEmergence.html} } @inproceedings{cangelosi04newFrontiersAI, author={A. Cangelosi and T. Riga and B. Giolito and D. Marocco}, title={The emergence of language in grounded adaptive agents and robots}, year={2004}, editor={K. Hasida and K. Nitta}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: Joint Proceeding of the 17th and 18th Annual Conferences of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi04newFrontiersAI.html} } @book{cangelosi06EvoLangProceedings, title={The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, year={2006}, editor={Cangelosi, A. and Smith, A.D.M. and Smith, K.}, publisher={Singapore: World Scientific}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cangelosi06EvoLangProceedings.html} } @unpublished{canning92learningLanguage, author={D. Canning}, title={Learning language conventions in common interest signaling games}, year={1992}, note={Unpublished manuscript, Columbia University.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/canning92learningLanguage.html} } @article{carstairsmccarthy07LINGUA, author={Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={Language evolution: What linguists can contribute}, journal={Lingua}, year={2007}, month={March}, volume={117}, number={3}, pages={503-509}, doi={10.1016/j.lingua.2005.07.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy07LINGUA.html}, keywords={Language evolution; Adaptation; Natural selection; Historical accident; Explanatory adequacy}, abstract={Three factors contribute to the evolutionary development of an organism: (i) historical accident (the genetic raw material available for natural selection to work on); (ii) adaptation through natural selection; (iii) nonbiological (especially physical) constraints. The same factors apply in principle to characteristics of an organism, such as the biological basis of the capacity for language in humans. From the point of view of these three factors, the author discusses recent contributions from linguists to language evolution research, including the contributions in this volume. He emphasises the importance of language evolution research for the development of linguistic theory, and the consequent need for more linguists to get involved in language evolution research.} } @incollection{carstairsmccarthy05morphology, author={Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={The Evolutionary Origin of Morphology}, year={2005}, chapter={8}, editor={Maggie Tallerman}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy05morphology.html} } @article{CarstairsMcCarthy04bookreview, author={Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={LANGUAGE: Many Perspectives, No Consensus}, journal={Science}, year={2004}, month={February}, volume={303}, number={5662}, pages={1299-1300}, doi={10.1126/science.1094779}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/CarstairsMcCarthy04bookreview.html} } @incollection{carstairs-mccarthy00theDistinction, author={A. Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={The distinction between sentences and noun phrases: An impediment to language evolution?}, year={2000}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy00theDistinction.html} } @book{carstairs-mccarthy99theOrigins, author={Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={The Origins of Complex Language: An Inquiry into the Evolutionary Beginnings of Sentences, Syllables, and Truth}, year={1999}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy99theOrigins.html} } @article{carstairs-mccarthy98theFrame, author={A. Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={The frame/content model and syntactic evolution}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1998}, pages={515-516}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy98theFrame.html} } @incollection{carstairs-mccarthy98synonymyAvoidance, author={A. Carstairs-McCarthy}, title={Synonymy avoidance, phonology and the origin of syntax}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/carstairsmccarthy98synonymyAvoidance.html} } @article{castro04culturalTransmission, author={Laureano Castro and Alfonso Medina and Miguel A. Toro}, title={Hominid cultural transmission and the evolution of language}, journal={Biology and Philosophy}, year={2004}, month={November}, volume={19}, number={5}, pages={721-737}, doi={10.1007/s10539-005-5567-7}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/castro04culturalTransmission.html}, keywords={cultural transmission, evolution of language, human evolution}, abstract={This paper presents the hypothesis that linguistic capacity evolved through the action of natural selection as an instrument which increased the efficiency of the cultural transmission system of early hominids. We suggest that during the early stages of hominization, hominid social learning, based on indirect social learning mechanisms and true imitation, came to constitute cumulative cultural transmission based on true imitation and the approval or disapproval of the learned behaviour of offspring. A key factor for this transformation was the development of a conceptual capacity for categorizing learned behaviour in value terms - positive or negative, good or bad. We believe that some hominids developed this capacity for categorizing behaviour, and such an ability allowed them to approve or disapprove of their offsprings- learned behaviour. With such an ability, hominids were favoured, as they could transmit to their offspring all their behavioural experience about what can and cannot be done. This capacity triggered a cultural transmission system similar to the human one, though pre-linguistic. We suggest that the adaptive advantage provided by this new system of social learning generated a selection pressure in favour of the development of a linguistic capacity allowing children to better understand the new kind of evaluative information received from parents.} } @article{cattuto06semioticDynamicsEPJC, author={Ciro Cattuto}, title={Semiotic dynamics in online social communities}, journal={Eur. Phys. J. C}, year={2006}, volume={46}, number={s02}, pages={33-37}, doi={10.1140/epjcd/s2006-03-004-4}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cattuto06semioticDynamicsEPJC.html}, abstract={A distributed classification paradigm known as collaborative tagging has been successfully deployed in large-scale web applications designed to manage and share diverse online resources. Users of these applications organize resources by associating with them freely chosen text labels, or tags. Here we regard tags as basic dynamical entities and study the semiotic dynamics underlying collaborative tagging. We collect data from a popular system and focus on tags associated with a given resource. We find that the frequencies of tags obey to a generalized Zipf's law and show that a Yule-Simon process with memory can be used to explain the observed frequency distributions in terms of a simple model of user behavior} } @article{cattuto06semioticDynamics, author={Ciro Cattuto and Vittorio Loreto and Luciano Pietronero}, title={Semiotic dynamics and collaborative tagging}, journal={PNAS}, year={2007}, month={January}, volume={104}, number={5}, pages={1461-1464}, doi={10.1073/pnas.0610487104}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cattuto06semioticDynamics.html}, keywords={online social communities,statistical physics,social bookmarking,information dynamics}, abstract={Collaborative tagging has been quickly gaining ground because of its ability to recruit the activity of web users into effectively organizing and sharing vast amounts of information. Here we collect data from a popular system and investigate the statistical properties of tag cooccurrence. We introduce a stochastic model of user behavior embodying two main aspects of collaborative tagging: (i) a frequency-bias mechanism related to the idea that users are exposed to each other's tagging activity; (ii) a notion of memory, or aging of resources, in the form of a heavy-tailed access to the past state of the system. Remarkably, our simple modeling is able to account quantitatively for the observed experimental features with a surprisingly high accuracy. This points in the direction of a universal behavior of users who, despite the complexity of their own cognitive processes and the uncoordinated and selfish nature of their tagging activity, appear to follow simple activity patterns.} } @article{cavalli-sforza97genes, author={L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza}, title={Genes, peoples and languages}, journal={PNAS}, year={1997}, volume={94}, number={15}, pages={7719-7724}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cavallisforza97genes.html}, abstract={The genetic history of a group of populations is usually analyzed by reconstructing a tree of their origins. Reliability of the reconstruction depends on the validity of the hypothesis that genetic differentiation of the populations is mostly due to population fissions followed by independent evolution. If necessary, adjustment for major population admixtures can be made. Dating the fissions requires comparisons with paleoanthropological and paleontological dates, which are few and uncertain. A method of absolute genetic dating recently introduced uses mutation rates as molecular clocks; it was applied to human evolution using microsatellites, which have a sufficiently high mutation rate. Results are comparable with those of other methods and agree with a recent expansion of modern humans from Africa. An alternative method of analysis, useful when there is adequate geographic coverage of regions, is the geographic study of frequencies of alleles or haplotypes. As in the case of trees, it is necessary to summarize data from many loci for conclusions to be acceptable. Results must be independent from the loci used. Multivariate analyses like principal components or multidimensional scaling reveal a number of hidden patterns and evaluate their relative importance. Most patterns found in the analysis of human living populations are likely to be consequences of demographic expansions, determined by technological developments affecting food availability, transportation, or military power. During such expansions, both genes and languages are spread to potentially vast areas. In principle, this tends to create a correlation between the respective evolutionary trees. The correlation is usually positive and often remarkably high. It can be decreased or hidden by phenomena of language replacement and also of gene replacement, usually partial, due to gene flow.} } @article{cavalli-sforza83paradox, author={L. L. Cavalli-Sforza and M. W. Feldman}, title={Paradox of the Evolution of Communication and of Social Interactivity}, journal={PNAS}, year={1983}, volume={80}, number={7}, pages={2017-2021}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cavallisforza83paradox.html}, abstract={Communication between individuals of a species is likely to increase the capacity to acquire skills useful for survival and propagation and thus may confer important selective advantages. Since interaction occurs between two or more individuals, the selective process is frequency dependent, and the analysis shows that communication cannot initially increase at a reasonable rate when it is limited to random unrelated individuals, so that it is likely to abort for stochastic reasons. However, this bottleneck is removed if the communication process takes place in the nuclear family or among close relatives or if aggregation of communicators occurs because of assortative mating or meeting. Use of the individual conditional fitnesses we have introduced earlier permits an exact analysis. We show that, in general, the initial rate of increase can be geometric if and only if, in the class of selective models considered, the conditional probability of a communicator interacting with another contains a positive constant term. In our discussion of communication, cost factors for the act of communication have been omitted. However, the model has been generalized to include cooperativeness, and also altruism, or competition, by introducing costs. There is a close relationship among these situations, and the same considerations about the initial bottleneck and its resolution also extend to them. The models given here are for haploids but they extend to diploids and the conclusions are similar.} } @book{cavalli-sforza81book, author={Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Marcus W. Feldman}, title={Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A quantitative approach}, year={1981}, publisher={Princeton University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cavallisforza81book.html}, abstract={To understand human evolution, we require, among other things, a theory describing the dynamics of culturally acquired phenotypes. In this book, Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman present a series of theoretical models that represent an important beginning toward such a theory.} } @article{cavallisforza92geneAndLanguages, author={L.L. Cavalli-Sforza and E. Minch and J.L. Mountain}, title={Coevolution of genes and languages revisited}, journal={PNAS}, year={1992}, month={June}, volume={89}, number={12}, pages={5620-5624}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cavallisforza92geneAndLanguages.html}, abstract={In an earlier paper it was shown that linguistic families of languages spoken by a set of 38 populations associate rather strongly with an evolutionary tree of the same populations derived from genetic data. While the correlation was clearly high, there was no evaluation of statistical significance; no such test was available at the time. This gap has now been filled by adapting to this aim a procedure based on the consistency index, and the level of significance is found to be much stronger than 10(-3). Possible reasons for coevolution of strictly genetic characters and the strictly cultural linguistic system are discussed briefly. Results of this global analysis are compared with those obtained in independent local analysis.} } @article{cernansky07neuralNetworks, author={Michal Cernansky and Matej Makula and Lubica Benuskova}, title={Organization of the state space of a simple recurrent network before and after training on recursive linguistic structures}, journal={Neural Networks}, year={2007}, month={March}, volume={20}, number={2}, pages={236-244}, doi={10.1016/j.neunet.2006.01.020}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cernansky07neuralNetworks.html}, abstract={Recurrent neural networks are often employed in the cognitive science community to process symbol sequences that represent various natural language structures. The aim is to study possible neural mechanisms of language processing and aid in development of artificial language processing systems. We used data sets containing recursive linguistic structures and trained the Elman simple recurrent network (SRN) for the next-symbol prediction task. Concentrating on neuron activation clusters in the recurrent layer of SRN we investigate the network state space organization before and after training. Given a SRN and a training stream, we construct predictive models, called neural prediction machines, that directly employ the state space dynamics of the network. We demonstrate two important properties of representations of recursive symbol series in the SRN. First, the clusters of recurrent activations emerging before training are meaningful and correspond to Markov prediction contexts. We show that prediction states that naturally arise in the SRN initialized with small random weights approximately correspond to states of Variable Memory Length Markov Models (VLMM) based on individual symbols (i.e. words). Second, we demonstrate that during training, the SRN reorganizes its state space according to word categories and their grammatical subcategories, and the next-symbol prediction is again based on the VLMM strategy. However, after training, the prediction is based on word categories and their grammatical subcategories rather than individual words. Our conclusion holds for small depths of recursions that are comparable to human performances. The methods of SRN training and analysis of its state space introduced in this paper are of a general nature and can be used for investigation of processing of any other symbol time series by means of SRN.} } @inproceedings{chang01groundedLearning, author={N. C. Chang and T. V. Maia}, title={Grounded Learning of Grammatical Constructions}, year={2001}, booktitle={2001 AAAI Spring Symposium on Learning Grounded Representations}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/chang01groundedLearning.html} } @article{cheney05constraintsAndPreadaptation, author={Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth}, title={Constraints and preadaptations in the earliest stages of language evolution}, journal={The Linguistic Review}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={22}, number={2-4}, pages={135-159}, doi={10.1515/tlir.2005.22.2-4.135}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cheney05constraintsAndPreadaptation.html}, abstract={If we accept the view that language first evolved from the conceptual structure of our pre-linguistic ancestors, several questions arise, including: What kind of structure? Concepts about what? Here we review research on the vocal communication and cognition of nonhuman primates, focusing on results that may be relevant to the earliest stages of language evolution. From these data we conclude, first, that nonhuman primates' inability to represent the mental states of others makes their communication fundamentally different from human language. Second, while nonhuman primates' production of vocalizations is highly constrained, their ability to extract complex information from sounds is not. Upon hearing vocalizations, listeners acquire information about their social companions that is referential, discretely coded, hierarchically structured, rule-governed, and propositional. We therefore suggest that, in the earliest stages of language evolution, communication had a formal structure that grew out of its speakers' knowledge of social relations.} } @book{cheney90monkeys, author={Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth}, title={How monkeys see the world: Inside the mind of another species}, year={1990}, publisher={Chicago,University of Chicago Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cheney90monkeys.html} } @incollection{chomsky76languageNature, author={N. Chomsky}, title={On the nature of language}, year={1976}, pages={46-57}, editor={S. R. Harnad and H. D. Steklis and J. Lancaster}, publisher={}, booktitle={Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 280}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/chomsky76languageNature.html} } @phdthesis{choudhury07phdthesis, author={Monojit Choudhury}, title={Computational Models of Real World Phonological Change}, year={2007}, month={May}, school={Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur}, note={under review and awaiting defense}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/choudhury07phdthesis.html} } @article{choudhury06schwaDeletionJASSS, author={Monojit Choudhury and Anupam Basu and Sudeshna Sarkar}, title={Multi-Agent Simulation of Emergence of Schwa Deletion Pattern in Hindi}, journal={Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation}, year={2006}, month={March}, volume={9}, number={2}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/choudhury06schwaDeletionJASSS.html}, keywords={Language Change, Linguistic Agent, Language Game, Multi-Agent Simulation, Schwa Deletion}, abstract={Recently, there has been a revival of interest in multi-agent simulation techniques for exploring the nature of language change. However, a lack of appropriate validation of simulation experiments against real language data often calls into question the general applicability of these methods in modeling realistic language change. We try to address this issue here by making an attempt to model the phenomenon of schwa deletion in Hindi through a multi-agent simulation framework. The pattern of Hindi schwa deletion and its diachronic nature are well studied, not only out of general linguistic inquiry, but also to facilitate Hindi grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, which is a preprocessing step to text-to-speech synthesis. We show that under certain conditions, the schwa deletion pattern observed in modern Hindi emerges in the system from an initial state of no deletion. The simulation framework described in this work can be extended to model other phonological changes as well.} } @inproceedings{choudhury04schwaDeletionSIGPHON, author={Monojit Choudhury and Anupam Basu and Sudeshna Sarkar}, title={A Diachronic Approach for Schwa Deletion in Indo Aryan Languages}, year={2004}, month={July}, pages={20--26}, address={Barcelona, Spain}, publisher={Association for Computational Linguistics}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Seventh Meeting of the ACL Special Interest Group in Computational Phonology}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/choudhury04schwaDeletionSIGPHON.html}, abstract={Schwa deletion is an important issue in grapheme-to-phoneme conversion for Indo- Aryan languages (IAL). In this paper, we describe a syllable minimization based algorithm for dealing with this that outperforms the existing methods in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The algorithm is motivated by the fact that deletion of schwa is a diachronic and sociolinguistic phenomenon that facilitates faster communication through syllable economy. The contribution of the paper is not just a better algorithm for schwa deletion; rather we describe here a constrained optimization based framework that can partly model the evolution of languages, and hence, can be used for solving many problems in computational linguistics that call for diachronic explanations.} } @inproceedings{choudhury07sigmorphon, author={Monojit Choudhury and Vaibhav Jalan and Sudeshna Sarkar and Anupam Basu}, title={Evolution, optimization and language change: the case of Bengali verb inflections}, year={2007}, month={June}, address={Prague}, booktitle={Proceedings of Ninth Meeting of the ACL Special Interest Group in Computational Morphology and Phonology}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/choudhury07sigmorphon.html}, abstract={The verb inflections of Bengali underwent a series of phonological change between 10th and 18th centuries, which gave rise to several modern dialects of the language. In this paper, we offer a functional explanation for this change by quantifying the functional pressures of ease of articulation, perceptual contrast and learnability through objective functions or constraints, or both. The multi-objective and multi-constraint optimization problem has been solved through genetic algorithm, whereby we have observed the emergence of Pareto-optimal dialects in the system that closely resemble some of the real ones.} } @inproceedings{choudhury06consonantACL, author={Monojit Choudhury and Animesh Mukherjee and Anupam Basu and Niloy Ganguly}, title={Analysis and Synthesis of the Distribution of Consonants over Languages: A Complex Network Approach}, year={2006}, address={Sydney, Australia}, booktitle={COLING-ACL06}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/choudhury06consonantACL.html}, abstract={Cross-linguistic similarities are reflected by the speech sound systems of languages all over the world. In this work we try to model such similarities observed in the consonant inventories, through a complex bipartite network. We present a systematic study of some of the appealing features of these inventories with the help of the bipartite network. An important observation is that the occurrence of consonants follows a two regime power law distribution. We find that the consonant inventory size distribution together with the principle of preferential attachment are the main reasons behind the emergence of such a two regime behavior. In order to further support our explanation we present a synthesis model for this network based on the general theory of preferential attachment.} } @incollection{christiansen_languageEvolution2, author={M. H. Christiansen}, title={Language evolution and change}, year={2002}, month={November}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={M.A. Arbib}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks (2nd Edition)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen_languageEvolution2.html} } @phdthesis{christiansen94phd, author={M. H. Christiansen}, title={Infinite Languages, Finite Minds: Connectionism, Learning and Linguistic Structure}, year={1994}, school={University of Edinburgh, Scotland}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen94phd.html}, abstract={This thesis presents a connectionist theory of how infinite languages may fit within nite minds. Arguments are presented against the distinction between linguistic competence and observable language performance. It is suggested that certain kinds of finite state automata--i.e., recurrent neural networks|are likely to have sufficient computational power, and the necessary generalization capability, to serve as models for the processing and acquisition of linguistic structure. These arguments are further corroborated by a number of computer simulations, demonstrating that recurrent connectionist models are able to learn complex recursive regularities and have powerful generalization abilities. Importantly, the performance evinced by the networks are comparable with observed human behavior on similar aspects of language. Moreover, an evolutionary account is provided, advocating a learning and processing based explanation of the origin and subsequent phylogenetic development of language. This view construes language as a nonobligate symbiant, arguing that language has evolved to fit human learning and processing mechanisms, rather than vice versa. As such, this perspective promises to explain linguistic universals in functional terms, and motivates an account of language acquisition which incorporates innate, but not language-specific constraints on the learning process. The purported poverty of the stimulus is re-appraised in this light, and it is concluded that linguistic structure may be learnable by bottom-up statistical learning models, such as, connectionist neural networks.} } @unpublished{christiansen07languageBrain, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater}, title={Language as Shaped by the Brain}, year={2007}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen07languageBrain.html}, abstract={It is widely assumed that human learning and the structure of human languages are intimately related. This relationship is frequently suggested to be rooted in a language-specific biological endowment, which encodes universal, but arbitrary, principles of language structure (a universal grammar or UG). How might such a UG have evolved? We argue that UG could not have arisen either by biological adaptation or non- adaptationist genetic processes. The resulting puzzle concerning the origin of UG we call the logical problem of language evolution. Because the processes of language change are much more rapid than processes of genetic change, language constitutes a “moving target” both over time and across different human populations, and hence cannot provide a stable environment to which UG genes could have adapted. We conclude that a biologically determined UG is not evolutionarily viable. Instead, the original motivation for UG—the mesh between learners and languages—arises because language has been shaped to fit the human brain, rather than vice versa. Following Darwin, we view language itself as a complex and interdependent “organism,” which evolves under selectional pressures from human learning and processing mechanisms. That is, languages are themselves undergoing severe selectional pressure from each generation of language users and learners. This suggests that apparently arbitrary aspects of linguistic structure may result from general learning and processing biases, independent of language. We illustrate how this framework can integrate evidence from different literatures and methodologies to explain core linguistic phenomena, including binding constraints, word order universals, and diachronic language change.} } @article{christiansen99towardA, author={M. H. Christiansen and N. Chater}, title={Toward a connectionist model of recursion in human linguistic performance}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={1999}, volume={23}, number={2}, pages={157-205}, doi={10.1207/s15516709cog2302_2}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen99towardA.html}, abstract={Naturally occurring speech contains only a limited amount of complex recursive structure, and this is reflected in the empirically documented difficulties that people experience when processing such structures. We present a connectionist model of human performance in processing recursive language structures. The model is trained on simple artificial languages. We find that the qualitative performance profile of the model matches human behavior, both on the relative difficulty of center-embedding and cross-dependency, and between the processing of these complex recursive structures and right-branching recursive constructions. We analyze how these differences in performance are reflected in the internal representations of the model by performing discriminant analyses on these representations both before and after training. Furthermore, we show how a network trained to process recursive structures can also generate such structures in a probabilistic fashion. This work suggests a novel explanation of people's limited recursive performance, without assuming the existence of a mentally represented competence grammar allowing unbounded recursion.} } @article{christiansen94generalizationAnd, author={M. H. Christiansen and N. Chater}, title={Generalization and connectionist language learning}, journal={Mind and Language}, year={1994}, volume={9}, pages={273-287}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen94generalizationAnd.html} } @incollection{christiansen05ACEchapter, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Christopher M. Conway and Suzanne Curtin}, title={Multiple-cue integration in language acquisition: A connectionist model of speech segmentation and rule-like behavior}, year={2005}, month={July}, editor={James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang}, publisher={City University of Hong Kong Press}, booktitle={Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: Essays in Evolutionary Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen05ACEchapter.html} } @incollection{Christiansen_dale_RoleOfLearning, author={M. H. Christiansen and R. Dale}, title={The Role of Learning and Development in Language Evolution: A Connectionist Perspective}, year={2004}, pages={91-109}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={Cambridge MA: MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Christiansen_dale_RoleOfLearning.html} } @incollection{christiansen03lang-evo-change, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Rick Dale}, title={Language evolution and change}, year={2003}, pages={604-606}, editor={M.A. Arbib}, publisher={Cambridge, MA: MIT Press}, booktitle={Handbook of brain theory and neural networks (2nd ed.)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen03langevochange.html} } @incollection{christiansen01theRole, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Rick Dale and Michelle R. Ellefson and Christopher M. Conway}, title={The role of sequential learning in language evolution: Computational and experimental studies}, year={2002}, pages={165-188}, address={London}, chapter={8}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen01theRole.html} } @inproceedings{christiansen97recursiveInconsistencies, author={M. H. Christiansen and J. T. Devlin}, title={Recursive inconsistencies are hard to learn: A connectionist perspective on universal word order correlations}, year={1997}, month={August}, pages={113-118}, address={Mahwah, NJ}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen97recursiveInconsistencies.html} } @incollection{christiansen02linguisticAdaptation, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Michelle R. Ellefson}, title={Linguistic Adaptation Without Linguistic Constraints: The Role of Sequential Learning in Language Evolution}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={16}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen02linguisticAdaptation.html}, abstract={Introduction

The acquisition and processing of language is governed by a number of universal constraints, many of which undoubtedly derive from innate properties of the human brain. These constraints lead to certain universal tendencies in how languages are structured and used. More generally, the constraints help explain why the languages of the world take up only a small part of the considerably larger space de. ned by the logically possible linguistic subpatterns. Although there is broad consensus about the existence of innate constraints on the way language is acquired and processed, there is much disagreement over whether these constraints are linguistic or cognitive in nature. Determining the nature of these constraints is important not only for theories of language acquisition and processing, but also for theories of language evolution. Indeed, these issues are theoretically intertwined because the constraints on language define the endpoints for evolutionary explanations: theories about how the constraints evolved in the hominid lineage are thus strongly determined by what the nature of these constraints is taken to be.

The Chomskyan approach to language suggests that the constraints on the acquisition and processing of language are linguistic, rather than cognitive, in nature. Th e constraints are represented in the form of a Universal Grammar (UG)—a large biological endowment of linguistic knowledge (e.g. Chomsky 1986). It is assumed that this knowledge-base is highly abstract, comprising a complex set of linguistic rules and principles that could not be acquired from exposure to language during development. Opinions differ about how UG emerged as the endpoint of language evolution. Some researchers have suggested that it evolved through a gradual process of natural selection (e.g., Newmeyer 1991; Pinker 1994; Pinker and Bloom 1990), whereas others have argued for a sudden emergence through non-adaptationist evolutionary processes (e.g., Bickerton 1995; Piattelli-Palmarini 1989). An important point of agreement is the emphasis in their explanations of language evolution on the need for very substantial biological changes to accommodate linguistic structure.

More recently an alternative perspective is gaining ground, advocating a refocus in thinking about language evolution. Rather than concentrating on biological changes to accommodate language, this approach stresses the adaptation of linguistic structures to the biological substrate of the human brain (e.g., Batali 1998; Christiansen 1994; Christiansen and Devlin 1997; Deacon 1997; Kirby 1998, 2000, 2001). Languages are viewed as dynamic systems of communication, subject to selection pressures arising from limitations on human learning and processing. Some approaches within this framework have built in a certain amount of linguistic machinery, such as context-free grammars (Kirby 2000). In this chapter we argue that many of the constraints on linguistic adaptation derive from non-linguistic limitations on the learning and processing of hierarchically organized sequential structure. Th ese mechanisms existed prior to the appearance of language, but presumably also underwent changes aft er the emergence of language. However, the selection pressures are likely to have come not only from language but also from other kinds of complex hierarchical processing, such as the need for increasingly complex manual combinations following tool sophistication. Consequently, many language universals may re. ect nonlinguistic, cognitive constraints on learning and processing of sequential structure rather than an innate UG.} } @incollection{christiansen03introductionHow, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Simon Kirby}, title={Language Evolution: The Hardest Problem in Science?}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen03introductionHow.html} } @book{christiansen-kirby-2003-editedbook, title={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, year={2003}, editor={M. H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansenkirby2003editedbook.html} } @article{christiansen03trends, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Simon Kirby}, title={Language Evolution: Consensus and Controversies}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2003}, month={7}, volume={7}, number={7}, pages={300-307}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00136-0}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen03trends.html}, abstract={Why is language the way it is? How did language come to be this way? And why is our species alone in having complex language? These are old unsolved questions that have seen a renaissance in the dramatic recent growth in research being published on the origins and evolution of human language. This review provides a broad overview of some of the important current work in this area. We highlight new methodologies (such as computational modeling), emerging points of consensus (such as the importance of pre-adaptation), and the major remaining controversies (such as gestural origins of language). We also discuss why language evolution is such a difficult problem, and suggest probable directions research may take in the near future.} } @inproceedings{Christiansen06BaldwinEffect, author={Morten H. Christiansen and Florencia Reali and Nick Chater}, title={The Baldwin effect works for functional, but not arbitrary, features of language}, year={2006}, pages={27-34}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Christiansen06BaldwinEffect.html}, abstract={Human languages are characterized by a number of universal patterns of structure and use. Theories differ on whether such linguistic universals are best understood as arbitrary features of an innate language acquisition device or functional features deriving from cognitive and communicative constraints. From the viewpoint of language evolution, it is important to explain how such features may have originated. We use computational simulations to investigate the circumstances under which universal linguistic constraints might get genetically fixed in a population of language learning agents. Specifically, we focus on the Baldwin effect as an evolutionary mechanism by which previously learned linguistic features might become innate through natural selection across many generations of language learners. The results indicate that under assumptions of linguistic change, only functional, but not arbitrary, features of language can become genetically fixed.} } @book{clark93theLexicon, author={E. Clark}, title={The Lexicon in Acquisition}, year={1993}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/clark93theLexicon.html} } @incollection{clark87thePrinciple, author={E. Clark}, title={The principle of contrast: A constraint on language acquisition}, year={1987}, pages={1-33}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc.}, booktitle={Mechanisms of language acquisition}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/clark87thePrinciple.html} } @article{clark93aComputational, author={R. Clark and I. Roberts}, title={A Computational Model of Language Learnability and Language Change}, journal={Linguistic Inquiry}, year={1993}, volume={24}, pages={299-345}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/clark93aComputational.html} } @article{cohen08geneticsOfLanguage, author={Jon Cohen}, title={The Genetics of Language}, journal={Technology Review}, year={2008}, month={January}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cohen08geneticsOfLanguage.html}, abstract={Researchers are beginning to crack the code that gives humans our way with words.} } @techreport{cohen00learningConcepts, author={Paul R. Cohen}, title={Learning Concepts by Interaction}, year={2000}, institution={Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst}, note={Technical Report 00-52}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cohen00learningConcepts.html} } @techreport{cohen98growingOntologies, author={Paul R. Cohen}, title={Growing Ontologies}, year={1998}, institution={Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts at Amherst}, note={Technical Report 98-20}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cohen98growingOntologies.html} } @article{collier04sensorNetworks, author={Travis C. Collier and Charles E. Taylor}, title={Self-organization in sensor networks}, journal={Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing}, year={2004}, month={July}, volume={64}, number={7}, pages={866-873}, doi={10.1016/j.jpdc.2003.12.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/collier04sensorNetworks.html}, keywords={Self-organization; Sensor networks}, abstract={In an effort to better guide research into self-configuring wireless sensor networks, we discuss a technical definition of the term self-organization. We define a self-organizing system as one where a collection of units coordinate with each other to form a system that adapts to achieve a goal more efficiently. We then lay out some conditions that must hold for a system to meet this definition and discuss some examples of self-organizing systems. Finally, we explore some of the ways this definition applies to wireless sensor networks.} } @inproceedings{colunga98linguisticRelativity, author={Eliana Colunga and M. Gasser}, title={Linguistic Relativity and Word Acquisition: A Computational Approach}, year={1998}, pages={244-249}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/colunga98linguisticRelativity.html} } @incollection{comrie92beforeComplexity, author={Bernard Comrie}, title={Before Complexity}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/comrie92beforeComplexity.html} } @incollection{comrie05grammaticalStructures, author={Bernard Comrie and Tania Kuteva}, title={The Evolution of Grammatical Structures and 'Functional Need' Explanations}, year={2005}, chapter={9}, editor={Maggie Tallerman}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/comrie05grammaticalStructures.html} } @article{conway01sequentialLearning, author={Christopher M. Conway and Morten H. Christiansen}, title={Sequential learning in non-human primates}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2001}, volume={5}, number={12}, pages={539-546}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01800-3}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/conway01sequentialLearning.html}, keywords={sequential learning; fixed sequences; statistical learning; hierarchical structure; primate learning}, abstract={Sequential learning plays a role in a variety of common tasks, such as human language processing, animal communication, and the learning of action sequences. In this article, we investigate sequential learning in non-human primates from a comparative perspective, focusing on three areas: the learning of arbitrary, fixed sequences; statistical learning; and the learning of hierarchical structure. Although primates exhibit many similarities to humans in their performance on sequence learning tasks, there are also important differences. Crucially, non-human primates appear to be limited in their ability to learn and represent the hierarchical structure of sequences. We consider the evolutionary implications of these differences and suggest that limitations in sequential learning may help explain why non-human primates lack human-like language.} } @incollection{corballis03fromHandToMouth, author={M. C. Corballis}, title={From hand to mouth: The gestural origins of language}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/corballis03fromHandToMouth.html} } @incollection{corballis02didLanguage, author={Michael C. Corballis}, title={Did Language Evolve from Manual Gestures?}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={8}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/corballis02didLanguage.html} } @book{corballis02fromHand, author={Michael C. Corballis}, title={From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language}, year={2002}, publisher={Princeton University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/corballis02fromHand.html} } @article{corballis92cognition, author={M. C. Corballis}, title={On the evolution of language and generativity}, journal={Cognition}, year={1992}, month={September}, volume={44}, number={3}, pages={197--126}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/corballis92cognition.html}, abstract={One of the properties that most conspicuously distinguishes human language from any other form of animal communication is generativity. Language with this property therefore presumably evolved with the Homo line somewhere between H. habilis and H. sapiens sapiens. Some have suggested that it emerged relatively suddenly and completely with H. sapiens sapiens, and this view is consistent with (a) linguistic estimates as to when vocal language emerged, (b) the relatively late 'explosion' of manufacture and cultural artifacts such as body ornamentation and cave drawings, and (c) evidence on changes in the vocal apparatus. However, evidence on brain size and developmental patterns of growth suggests an earlier origin and a more continuous evolution. I propose that these scenarios can be reconciled if it is supposed that generative language evolved, perhaps from H. habilis on, as a system of manual gestures, but switched to a predominantly vocal system with H. sapiens sapiens. The subsequent 'cultural explosion' can then be attributed to the freeing of the hands from primary involvement in language, so that they could be exploited, along with generativity, for manufacture, art, and other activities.} } @article{corominas06languageGame, author={Bernat Corominas and Ricard V. Sole}, title={Network topology and self-consistency in language games}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={2006}, month={July}, volume={241}, number={2}, pages={438-441}, doi={10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.11.025}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/corominas06languageGame.html} } @incollection{coupe05polygenesis, author={Christophe Coupe and Jean-Marie Hombert}, title={Polygenesis of Linguistic Strategies: A Scenario for the Emergence of Languages}, year={2005}, month={July}, editor={James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang}, publisher={City University of Hong Kong Press}, booktitle={Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: Essays in Evolutionary Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/coupe05polygenesis.html}, abstract={On the one hand, numerous hypotheses have been put forward to account for the emergence of language during the last million years of human evolution. On the other hand, a large majority of linguists considers that nothing can be said about past languages before 8,000 or 10,000 years in the past, given our current knowledge on modern languages. A large gap obviously separates such approaches and conceptions, and has to be crossed to provide a better account of the development of our communicative system. To partially bridge the gap between the former domains, we aim at proposing a plausible scenario for the emergence of languages, with an emphasis on the development of linguistic diversity. The present study will address the question of the monogenesis or polygenesis of modern languages, which is often implicitly biased toward the first hypothesis. Probabilistic and computational models, as well as palaeo-demographic data and evolutionary considerations, will constitute the key points of our proposals.} } @inproceedings{coventry02puttingGeometry, author={K. R. Coventry and A. Cangelosi and D. W. Joyce and L. Richards}, title={Putting Geometry and Function Together - Towards a Psychologically-Plausible Computational Model for Spatial Language Comprehension}, year={2002}, address={Virginia, US}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/coventry02puttingGeometry.html} } @inproceedings{coventry04SCC, author={K. R. Coventry and A. Cangelosi and R. Rajapakse and A. Bacon and S. Newstead and D. Joyce and L. V. Richards}, title={Spatial prepositions and vague quantifiers: Implementing the functional geometric framework}, year={2005}, address={Germany}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Proceedings of Spatial Cognition Conference 2004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/coventry04SCC.html} } @article{crespi07FOXP2, author={Bernard J. Crespi}, title={Sly FOXP2: genomic conflict in the evolution of language}, journal={Trends in Ecology and Evolution}, year={2007}, month={April}, volume={22}, number={4}, pages={174--175}, doi={10.1016/j.tree.2007.01.007}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/crespi07FOXP2.html} } @article{croft02languageDarwinization, author={William Croft}, title={The Darwinization of Linguistics}, journal={Selection}, year={2002}, month={November}, volume={3}, number={1}, pages={75-91}, doi={10.1556/Select.3.2002.1.7}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/croft02languageDarwinization.html}, keywords={Linguistics, language change, evolution, selection, replicator}, abstract={Linguistics and evolutionary biology have substantially diverged until recently. The chief reason for this divergence was the dominance of essentialist thinking in linguistics during the twentieth century. Croft (2000) describes a thoroughgoing application of Hull's (1988) generalized theory of selection to language change. In this model, tokens of linguistic structure in utterances (`linguemes') are replicators and speakers are interactors. Current debates in the philosophy of evolutionary biology (e.g. Sterelny and Griffiths, 1999) are then applied to language change. Hull's generalized theory is post-synthesis: it recognizes a distinction between replicator and interactor and is independent of levels of biological organization. Biological issues such as mechanisms of inheritance (e.g. Lamarckism) and of selection (e.g. intentional behavior) are simply irrelevant to the generalized theory of selection outside biology. However, there are many striking parallels between biological evolution and language change that are likely to be consequences of the generalized theory of selection, including flexibility of adaptation to the environment, emergent structure, evolutionary conservatism, vestigial traits, exaptation, and the absence of ``progress''. The evolutionary theory of language change is not evolutionary psychology, but it is mimetics; this approach is defended against Sterelny and Griffith's criticisms.} } @book{croft00book, author={William Croft}, title={Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach}, year={2000}, publisher={London: Longman}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/croft00book.html} } @incollection{crow02protocadherinXy, author={T. J. Crow}, title={Protocadherin XY: A Candidate Gene for Cerebral Asymmetry and Language}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={5}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/crow02protocadherinXy.html} } @mastersthesis{crumpton94evolutionOf, author={Joseph J. Crumpton}, title={Evolution of Two Symbol Signals by Simulated Organisms}, year={1994}, month={December}, school={}, note={This thesis reports experiments on the factors promoting or inhibiting the evolution of simulated organisms using strings of length 2 for communication. The simulation program is also available.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/crumpton94evolutionOf.html} } @article{cucker03, author={Felipe Cucker and Steve Smale and Ding-Xuan Zhou}, title={Modeling Language Evolution}, journal={Foundations of Computational Mathematics}, year={2004}, month={July}, volume={4}, number={3}, pages={315-343}, doi={10.1007/s10208-003-0101-2}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cucker03.html}, keywords={Language evolution,Learning theory}, abstract={We describe a model for the evolution of the languages used by the agents of a society. Our main result proves convergence of these langua ges to a common one under certain conditions. A few special cases are elaborated in more depth.} } @article{culicover06simplerSyntaxHypothesis, author={Peter W. Culicover and Ray Jackendoff}, title={The simpler syntax hypothesis.}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2006}, month={Sep}, volume={10}, number={9}, pages={413--418}, doi={10.1016/j.tics.2006.07.007}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/culicover06simplerSyntaxHypothesis.html}, keywords={Comprehension; Humans; Language; Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Thinking}, abstract={What roles do syntax and semantics have in the grammar of a language? What are the consequences of these roles for syntactic structure, and why does it matter? We sketch the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis, which holds that much of the explanatory role attributed to syntax in contemporary linguistics is properly the responsibility of semantics. This rebalancing permits broader coverage of empirical linguistic phenomena and promises a tighter integration of linguistic theory into the cognitive scientific enterprise. We suggest that the general perspective of the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis is well suited to approaching language processing and language evolution, and to computational applications that draw upon linguistic insights.} } @techreport{curran02techreport, author={Dara Curran and Colm O'Riordan}, title={Language Evolution In Artificial Systems}, year={2002}, institution={Dept. of IT., NUI, Galway}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/curran02techreport.html} } @mastersthesis{dai02locality, author={Wenjing Dai}, title={Locality as a Stabilizing Factor for Evolving Language Systems}, year={2002}, school={Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dai02locality.html} } @inproceedings{daland07socialNetworkRussian, author={Robert Daland and Andrea D. Sims and Janet Pierrehumbert}, title={Much ado about nothing: A social network model of Russian paradigmatic gaps}, year={2007}, pages={936-943}, address={Prague, Czech Republic}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/daland07socialNetworkRussian.html}, abstract={A number of Russian verbs lack 1sg non-past forms. These paradigmatic gaps are puzzling because they seemingly contradict the highly productive nature of inflectional systems. We model the persistence and spread of Russian gaps via a multi-agent model with Bayesian learning. We ran three simulations: no grammar learning, learning with arbitrary analogical pressure, and morphophonologically conditioned learning. We compare the results to the attested historical development of the gaps. Contradicting previous accounts, we propose that the persistence of gaps can be explained in the absence of synchronic competition between forms.} } @article{dallasta06microscopicPatterns, author={Luca Dall'Asta and Andrea Baronchelli}, title={Microscopic activity patterns in the Naming Game}, journal={Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General}, year={2006}, month={12}, volume={39}, number={48}, pages={14851-14867}, doi={10.1088/0305-4470/39/48/002}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dallasta06microscopicPatterns.html}, abstract={The models of statistical physics used to study collective phenomena in some interdisciplinary contexts, such as social dynamics and opinion spreading, do not consider the effects of the memory on individual decision processes. On the contrary, in the Naming Game, a recently proposed model of Language formation, each agent chooses a particular state, or opinion, by means of a memory-based negotiation process, during which a variable number of states is collected and kept in memory. In this perspective, the statistical features of the number of states collected by the agents becomes a relevant quantity to understand the dynamics of the model, and the influence of topological properties on memory-based models. By means of a master equation approach, we analyze the internal agent dynamics of Naming Game in populations embedded on networks, finding that it strongly depends on very general topological properties of the system (e.g. average and fluctuations of the degree). However, the influence of topological properties on the microscopic individual dynamics is a general phenomenon that should characterize all those social interactions that can be modeled by memory-based negotiation processes.} } @article{dallasta06agreementDynamicsSmallWorld, author={L. Dall'Asta and A. Baronchelli and A. Barrat and V. Loreto}, title={Agreement dynamics on small-world networks}, journal={Europhysics Letters}, year={2006}, volume={73}, number={6}, pages={969-975}, doi={10.1209/epl/i2005-10481-7}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dallasta06agreementDynamicsSmallWorld.html}, abstract={In this paper we analyze the effect of a non-trivial topology on the dynamics of the so-called Naming Game, a recently introduced model which addresses the issue of how shared conventions emerge spontaneously in a population of agents. We consider in particular the small-world topology and study the convergence towards the global agreement as a function of the population size $N$ as well as of the parameter $p$ which sets the rate of rewiring leading to the small-world network. As long as $p \gg 1/N$ there exists a crossover time scaling as $N/p^2$ which separates an early one-dimensional-like dynamics from a late stage mean-field-like behavior. At the beginning of the process, the local quasi one-dimensional topology induces a coarsening dynamics which allows for a minimization of the cognitive effort (memory) required to the agents. In the late stages, on the other hand, the mean-field like topology leads to a speed up of the convergence process with respect to the one-dimensional case.} } @article{dallasta06languageGamesNetworks, author={Luca Dall'Asta and Andrea Baronchelli and Alain Barrat and Vittorio Loreto}, title={Non-equilibrium dynamics of language games on complex networks}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2006}, volume={74}, pages={036105}, doi={10.1103/PhysRevE%2E74%2E036105}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dallasta06languageGamesNetworks.html}, abstract={The Naming Game is a model of non-equilibrium dynamics for the self-organized emergence of a linguistic convention or a communication system in a population of agents with pairwise local interactions. We present an extensive study of its dynamics on complex networks, that can be considered as the most natural topological embedding for agents involved in language games and opinion dynamics. Except for some community structured networks on which metastable phases can be observed, agents playing the Naming Game always manage to reach a global consensus. This convergence is obtained after a time generically scaling with the population's size $N$ as $t\_{conv} \sim N^{1.4 \pm 0.1}$, i.e. much faster than for agents embedded on regular lattices. Moreover, the memory capacity required by the system scales only linearly with its size. Particular attention is given to heterogenous networks, in which the dynamical activity pattern of a node depends on its degree. High degree nodes have a fundamental role, but require larger memory capacity. They govern the dynamics acting as spreaders of (linguistic) conventions. The effects of other properties, such as the average degree and the clustering, are also discussed.} } @article{dautenhahn01narrativeIntelligence, author={Kerstin Dautenhahn and Steven J. Coles}, title={Narrative Intelligence from the Bottom Up: A Computational Framework for the Study of Story-Telling in Autonomous Agents}, journal={Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation}, year={2001}, volume={4}, number={1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dautenhahn01narrativeIntelligence.html}, abstract={This paper addresses Narrative Intelligence from a bottom up, Artificial Life perspective. First, different levels of narrative intelligence are discussed in the context of human and robotic story-tellers. Then, we introduce a computational framework which is based on minimal definitions of stories, story-telling and autobiographic agents. An experimental test-bed is described which is applied to the study of story-telling, using robotic agents as examples of situated, autonomous minimal agents. Experimental data are provided which support the working hypothesis that story-telling can be advantageous, i.e. increases the survival of an autonomous, autobiographic, minimal agent. We conclude this paper by discussing implications of this approach for story-telling in humans and artifacts.} } @incollection{davidson03theArchaeological, author={Iain Davidson}, title={The archaeological evidence of language origins: States of the art}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/davidson03theArchaeological.html} } @incollection{davidson02theFinished, author={Iain Davidson}, title={The 'Finished Artefact Fallacy': Acheulean Handaxes and Language Origins}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={9}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/davidson02theFinished.html} } @incollection{davidson99nameGame, author={Iain Davidson}, title={The Game of the Name: Continuity and Discontinuity in Language Origins}, year={1999}, chapter={7}, editor={Barbara J. King}, publisher={School of American Research Press}, booktitle={The Origins of Language: What Nonhuman Primates Can Tell Us}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/davidson99nameGame.html} } @incollection{deacon03univeralGrammar, author={Terrence W. Deacon}, title={Universal Grammar and semiotic constraints}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/deacon03univeralGrammar.html} } @article{deacon00jcd, author={Terrence W. Deacon}, title={Evolutionary perspectives on language and brain plasticity}, journal={Journal of Communication Disorders}, year={2000}, volume={33}, number={4}, pages={273-291}, doi={10.1016/S0021-9924(00)00025-3}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/deacon00jcd.html}, keywords={Evolution; Speech; Language; Neuroanatomy}, abstract={Our understanding of speech and language disorders may be aided by information about the constraints and predispositions contributed by neural developmental processes. As soon as we begin to look at human neuroanatomy and development from a comparative perspective, it is possible to recognize a number of ways that human brains diverge from the general pattern of other ape and monkey brains. These divergences may offer clues to language evolution. Large-scale quantitative changes in the relative proportions of brain regions (as opposed to just overall expansion) offer some of the most obvious clues. Additional information about how axons are guided in their extensions to distant developmental targets and how competitive trophic processes sculpt these connections also provides a way to understand how gross quantitative changes in cell numbers could affect circuit organization and ultimately behavior.} } @book{deacon97theSymbolic, author={Terrence W. Deacon}, title={The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain}, year={1997}, publisher={W.W. Norton}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/deacon97theSymbolic.html} } @incollection{deacon92brainLanguage, author={Terrence W. Deacon}, title={Brain-Language Coevolution}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, series={SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/deacon92brainLanguage.html} } @inproceedings{dediu06evolang, author={Dan Dediu}, title={Mostly out of Africa, but what did the others have to say?}, year={2006}, pages={59-66}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dediu06evolang.html}, abstract={The Recent Out-of-Africa human evolutionary model seems to be generally accepted. This impression is very prevalent outside palaeoanthropological circles (including studies of language evolution), but proves to be unwarranted. This paper offers a short review of the main challenges facing ROA and concludes that alternative models based on the concept of metapopulation must be also considered. The implications of such a model for language evolution and diversity are briefly reviewed.} } @article{dediu07linguisticTonePNAS, author={Dan Dediu and D. Robert Ladd}, title={Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin}, journal={PNAS}, year={2007}, month={June}, volume={104}, number={26}, pages={10944-10949}, doi={10.1073/pnas.0610848104}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dediu07linguisticTonePNAS.html}, keywords={learning biases,tone language,linguistic typology,cultural transmission}, abstract={The correlations between interpopulation genetic and linguistic diversities are mostly noncausal (spurious), being due to historical processes and geographical factors that shape them in similar ways. Studies of such correlations usually consider allele frequencies and linguistic groupings (dialects, languages, linguistic families or phyla), sometimes controlling for geographic, topographic, or ecological factors. Here, we consider the relation between allele frequencies and linguistic typological features. Specifically, we focus on the derived haplogroups of the brain growth and development-related genes ASPM and Microcephalin, which show signs of natural selection and a marked geographic structure, and on linguistic tone, the use of voice pitch to convey lexical or grammatical distinctions. We hypothesize that there is a relationship between the population frequency of these two alleles and the presence of linguistic tone and test this hypothesis relative to a large database (983 alleles and 26 linguistic features in 49 populations), showing that it is not due to the usual explanatory factors represented by geography and history. The relationship between genetic and linguistic diversity in this case may be causal: certain alleles can bias language acquisition or processing and thereby influence the trajectory of language change through iterated cultural transmission.} } @inproceedings{demolin06evolang, author={Didier Demolin and Veronique Delvaux}, title={A comparison of the articulatory parameters involved in the production of sound of bonobos and modern humans}, year={2006}, pages={67-74}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/demolin06evolang.html}, abstract={Most studies of vocalizations with chimpanzees and Bonobos focus on the interpretation of the vocal behaviour of both captive and free-ranging groups to relate sounds produced to their semantic contexts. Spectrographic analyses reveal the acoustic structure of the vocalizations but rarely raise the question of the specific articulatory capacities of Bonobos in relation to the acoustics. This point is essential if one wants to understand the articulatory control that Bonobos have on their vocalizations. It is also important when the vocalizations of Bonobos and the sound produced by modern humans are compared.} } @article{demolin01theRole, author={D. Demolin and A. Soquet}, title={The role of self-organisation in the emergence of phonological systems}, journal={Evolution of Communication}, year={1999}, volume={3}, number={1}, pages={21-48}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/demolin01theRole.html}, abstract={The origin of phonological systems is examined from the paradigm of self-organization. We claim that phonological systems could have emerged as the product of self-organizing processes. Self-organization may have facilitated the evolution of structures within the sounds that humans were able to produce. One of the main points of the paper concerns the identification of the processes which could account for the self-organized behavior of sound systems used in languages spoken by humans. In this paradigm, phonological systems or sound patterns of human languages are emergent properties of these systems rather than properties imposed by some external influence. Regulations are defined as the constraints that adjust the rate of production of the elements of a system to the state of the system and of relevant environmental variables. The main operators of these adjustments are feedback loops. Two types of processes can be distinguished in regulatory networks, homeostatic and epigenetic. Since the origin of sound patterns, of human languages, is in the vocal tract constraints, we make the hypothesis that sound change does not reflect any adaptive character but rather is the phonetic modality of differentiation understood as epigenetic regulation.} } @inproceedings{dessalles06generalisedSignalling, author={Jean-Louis Dessalles}, title={Generalised signalling: a possible solution to the paradox of language}, year={2006}, pages={75-82}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dessalles06generalisedSignalling.html}, abstract={The systematic and universal communicative behaviour that drives human beings to give honest information to conspecifics during long-lasting conversational episodes still represents a Darwinian paradox. Attempts to solve it by comparing conversation with a mere reciprocal cooperative information exchange is at odds with the reality of spontaneous language use. The Costly Signalling Theory has recently attracted attention as a tentative explanation of the evolutionary stability of language. Unfortunately, it makes the wrong prediction that only elite individuals would talk. I show that as far as social bonding is assortative in our species, generalised signalling through language becomes a viable strategy to attract allies.} } @incollection{dessalles00languageAnd, author={J-L. Dessalles}, title={Language and hominid politics}, year={2000}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dessalles00languageAnd.html}, abstract={Language is the main distinctive feature of our species. Why do we feel the urge to communicate with our fellows, and why is this form of communication, characterised by relevance, unique in animal kingdom ? In this chapter, we will first stress this specificity of human communication. In a second part, using computer evolutionary simulations, we will dismiss the usual claim that human communication is a specific form of reciprocal cooperation. A Darwinian account of language requires that we find a selective advantage in the communication act. We will propose, in the third part of this chapter, that such an advantage can be found if we consider language activity in the broader frame of human social organisation. In the continuation of the 'chimpanzee politics' studied by de Waal (1982), the ability to form large coalitions must have been an essential feature of hominid societies (Dunbar 1996). We will suggest that relevant speech originated in this context, as a way for individuals to select each other to form alliances.} } @article{dessalles99coalitionFactor, author={J-L. Dessalles}, title={Coalition factor in the evolution of non-kin altruism}, journal={Advances in complex systems}, year={1999}, volume={2}, number={2}, pages={143-172}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dessalles99coalitionFactor.html}, abstract={Animal behavior is often altruistic. In the frame of the theory of natural selection, altruism can only exist under specific conditions like kin selection or reciprocal cooperation. We show that reciprocal cooperation, which is generally invoked to explain non-kin altruism, requires very restrictive conditions to be evolutionary stable. Some of these conditions are not met in many cases of altruism observed in nature. In the search of another explanation of non-kin altruism, we consider Zahavis's theory of prestige. We extend it to propose a 'political' model of altruism. We give evidence showing that non-kin altruism can evolve in the context of inter-subgroup competition. Under such circumstances, altruistic behavior can be used by individuals to advertise their quality as efficient coalition members. In this model, only abilities which positively correlate with the subgroup success can evolve into altruistic behaviors.} } @incollection{dessalles98altruismStatus, author={J-L. Dessalles}, title={Altruism, status, and the origin of relevance}, year={1998}, pages={130-147}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dessalles98altruismStatus.html}, keywords={relevance, evolution, status, pragmatics, conversation, argumentation, altruism}, abstract={We deal here with the problem of the origin of language from the point of view of pragmatics. Our aim is to show that any scenario of language origin should explain the relevance phenomenon. Why do people feel obliged to be relevant in casual conversation ? Analysing the structure of relevance leads to unexpected conclusions : relevant information is valuable, therefore language seems to be altruistic. As a consequence, from a Darwinian perspective, speakers should be rare and continually prompted for their knowledge. What we observe, however, is the exact opposite : in many situations, speakers repeatedly strive to make their point, while listeners systematically evaluate what they hear. A possible solution to this paradox is that language is not altruistic and that relevant information is traded for status. The observation of spontaneous conversation provides some evidence that supports such a hypothesis.} } @incollection{dewar06phylogeneticMethods, author={Robert E. Dewar}, title={Malagasy Language as a Guide to Understanding Malagasy History}, year={2006}, pages={11-}, chapter={1}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dewar06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @incollection{debeule05construc_time, author={Joachim De Beule}, title={Simulating the syntax and semantics of linguistic constructions about time}, year={2006}, address={Dordrecht}, editor={Gontier, Nathalie and van Bendegem, Jean Paul and Aerts, Diederik}, series={Theory and Decision Library - Series A: Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture - A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/debeule05construc_time.html}, abstract={In this paper we motivate and report on the implementation of a computer experiment to investigate the syntax and semantics of linguistic constructions about time. It is argued that the way in which a domain like time is conceptualized is not universal and evolves over time. To investigate this we want to simulate a population of agents evolving their proper language and ontology of time in order to succeed in communicating temporal information. Such simulations can be done using a formalism proposed by Steels (2004). Some advances in applying the formalism to the domain of time are reported and examples of actual simulations are presented.} } @inproceedings{debeule04timeOntology, author={Joachim De Beule}, title={Creating Temporal Categories for an Ontology of Time}, year={2004}, pages={107-114}, editor={Rineke Verbrugge and Niels Taatgen and Lambert Schomaker}, booktitle={BNAIC-04}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/debeule04timeOntology.html}, abstract={A mechanism is described that enables a robotic agent to create temporal categories for conceptualizing the world. The creation of a new category is triggered when the agent is unable to temporally distinguish an event from the other events in the context using already adopted categories. This is different from most other approaches where ontological categories are defined by humans and the ontologies are fixed in advance.} } @inproceedings{debeule06compositionality, author={Joachim De Beule and Benjamin K. Bergen}, title={On the emergence of compositionality}, year={2006}, pages={35-42}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/debeule06compositionality.html}, abstract={Compositionality is a hallmark of human language - words and morphemes can be factorially combined to produce a seemingly limitless number of viable strings. This contrasts with nonhuman communication systems, which for the most part are holistic - encoding a whole message through a single, gestalt form. Why does every human language adopt a compositional strategy? In this paper, we show that compositional language can arise automatically through grounded communication among populations of communicators. The proposed mechanism is the following: if a holistic and a compositional approach are in competition and if both structured (compositional) and atomic meanings need to be communicated, the holistic strategy becomes less successful as it does not recruit already acquired bits of language. We demonstrate the viability of this explanation through computer simulations in which populations of artificial agents perform a communicative task - describing scenes that they have observed. Successful language strategies (that is, those yielding successful transmission of information about a scene) are reinforced while unsuccessful ones are demoted. The simulations show that this reinforcement on the basis of communicative success indeed leads to the dominance of compositional language as long as the fraction of unstructured meaning to be communicated is sufficiently high. Moreover, following Elman (1993), we then show that the same effect can be achieved by, instead of manipulating the world (the fraction of unstructured meaning presented to the agents), letting the agents themselves go through developmental stages. These simulations confirm that simple reinforcement mechanisms applied during communicative interactions can account for the emergence of linguistic compositionality.} } @inproceedings{joachim05hierar_fluid_construc_gramm, author={Joachim De Beule and Luc Steels}, title={Hierarchy in Fluid Construction Grammar}, year={2005}, number={3698}, pages={1-15}, address={Berlin}, editor={Furbach U.}, series={Lecture Notes in AI}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={Proceedings of KI-2005}, doi={10.1007/11551263_1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/joachim05hierar_fluid_construc_gramm.html}, abstract={This paper reports further progress into a computational implementation of a new formalism for construction grammar, known as Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG). We focus in particular on how hierarchy can be implemented. The paper analyses the requirements for a proper treatment of hierarchy in emergent grammar and then proposes a particular solution based on a new operator, called the J-operator. The J-operator constructs a new unit as a side effect of the matching process.} } @inproceedings{beule02groundingFormalSyntax, author={Joachim De Beule and Joris Van Looveren and Willem Zuidema}, title={From Perception to Language: Grounding Formal Syntax in an Almost Real World}, year={2002}, booktitle={BNAIC-02}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/beule02groundingFormalSyntax.html}, abstract={Human, syntactic language is one of the most intriguing behaviors and receives increasing attention from researchers in numerous fields. Here we present a model that goes an important step further than previous work because it explicitly connects low-level perception and categorization, hierarchical meaning construction and syntactic language. The model thus shows a solution to the ‘symbol grounding problem’ (Harnad, 1990): the meaning of the symbolic system – logical symbols and syntactic rules – is grounded in its relation with a simplified but realistic world. We discuss the different components of this collaborative effort: (i) a realistic simulation of Newtonian dynamics of objects in a 2D plane; (ii) schemabased event-perception and categorization; (iii) a semantics based on predicate logic; and (iv) a categorial grammar for the production and interpretation of language. The integration of the different components poses on the one hand novel and important constraints; on the other hand, it allows for experiments that help to identify the relations between the different levels. We note some important similarities and differences with SHRDLU (Winograd, 1976) and the Talking Heads experiment (Steels et al., 2002), and give an agenda for future experiments.} } @inproceedings{debeule05cogsci, author={Joachim De Beule and Bart De Vylder}, title={Does Language Shape the Way We Conceptualize the World?}, year={2005}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/debeule05cogsci.html}, abstract={In this paper it is argued that the way the world is conceptualized for language is language dependent and the result of negotiation between language users. This is investigated in a computer experiment in which a population of artificial agents constructs a shared language to talk about a world that can be conceptualized in multiple and possibly conflicting ways. It is argued that the establishment of a successful communication system requires that feedback about the communicative success is propagated to the ontological level, and thus that language shapes the way we conceptualize the world for communication.} } @inproceedings{DeBeule06Cross_Situational_learning, author={Joachim De Beule and Bart De Vylder and Tony Belpaeme}, title={A cross-situational learning algorithm for damping homonymy in the guessing game}, year={2006}, pages={466-472}, editor={Luis M. Rocha and et al.}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life X}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/DeBeule06Cross_Situational_learning.html}, abstract={There is a growing body of research on multi-agent systems bootstrapping a communication system. Most studies are based on simulation, but recently there has been an increased interest in the properties and formal analysis of these systems. Although very interesting and promising results have been obtained in these studies, they always rely on major simplifications. For example, although much larger populations are considered than was the case in most earlier work, previous work assumes the possibility of meaning transfer. With meaning transfer, two agents always exactly know what they are talking about. This is hardly ever the case in actual communication systems, as noise corrupts the agents’ perception and transfer of meaning. In this paper we first consider what happens when relaxing the meaning-transfer assumption, and propose a cross-situational learning scheme that allows a population of agents to still bootstrap a common lexicon under this condition. We empirically show the validity of the scheme and thereby improve on the results reported in (Smith, 2003) and (Vogt and Coumans, 2003) in which no satisfactory solution was found. It is not our aim to reduce the importance of previous work, instead we are excited by recent results and hope to stimulate further research by pointing towards some new challenges.} } @mastersthesis{digh94theGreek, author={Andrew Douglas Digh}, title={The Greek Miracle: An Artificial Life Simulation of the Effects of Literacy on the Dynamics of Communication}, year={1994}, month={December}, school={}, note={This thesis reports a study of complex systems phenomena motivated by the apparent ``phase transition'' that took place in ancient Greece when the alphabet was introduced. In particular, the complexity of behavior (Wolfram's classes I, II, etc.) is related to a parameter analogous to Langton's . Instead of a simple cellular automaton, the topology is given by separate random networks for oral and literate communication.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/digh94theGreek.html} } @inproceedings{dircks99effectiveLexicon, author={Christopher Dircks and Scott C. Stoness}, title={Effective Lexicon Change in the Absence of Population Flux}, year={1999}, pages={720-724}, address={Berlin}, editor={D. Floreano and J. Nicoud and F. Mondada}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dircks99effectiveLexicon.html} } @inproceedings{divina06wordmeaningMappingsEELC, author={Federico Divina and Paul Vogt}, title={A hybrid model for learning word-meaning mappings}, year={2006}, pages={1-15}, editor={P. Vogt and et al.}, publisher={Springer Berlin/Heidelberg}, booktitle={Symbol Grounding and Beyond: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, doi={10.1007/11880172_1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/divina06wordmeaningMappingsEELC.html}, abstract={In this paper we introduce a model for the simulation of language evolution, which is incorporated in the New Ties project. The New Ties project aims at evolving a cultural society by integrating evolutionary, individual and social learning in large scale multi-agent simulations. The model presented here introduces a novel implementation of language games, which allows agents to communicate in a more natural way than with most other existing implementations of language games. In particular, we propose a hybrid mechanism that combines cross-situational learning techniques with more informed feedback mechanisms. In our study we focus our attention on dealing with referential indeterminacy after joint attention has been established and on whether the current model can deal with larger populations than previous studies involving cross-situational learning. Simulations show that the proposed model can indeed lead to coherent languages in a quasi realistic world environment with larger populations.} } @inproceedings{divina05groundedLexiconECAL, author={Federico Divina and Paul Vogt}, title={Perceptually Grounded Lexicon Formation Using Inconsistent Knowledge}, year={2005}, month={September}, pages={644-654}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={ECAL05}, doi={10.1007/11553090_65}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/divina05groundedLexiconECAL.html}, abstract={Typically, multi-agent models for studying the evolution of perceptually grounded lexicons assume that agents perceive the same set of objects, and that there is either joint attention, corrective feedback or cross-situational learning. In this paper we address these two assumptions, by introducing a new multi-agent model for the evolution of perceptually grounded lexicons, where agents do not perceive the same set of objects, and where agents receive a cue to focus their attention to objects, thus simulating a Theory of Mind. In addition, we vary the amount of corrective feedback provided to guide learning word-meanings. Results of simulations show that the proposed model is quite robust to the strength of these cues and the amount of feedback received.} } @inproceedings{chio06simulationSpatialTopology, author={Cecilia Di Chio and Paolo Di Chio}, title={Simulation model for the evolution of language with spatial topology}, year={2006}, pages={51-58}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/chio06simulationSpatialTopology.html}, abstract={In this paper, we present an agent-based simulation model for the evolution of language. This is based on a previous model proposed by the authors and inspired by Nowak's simplest mathematical model. We extend our previous work with the introduction of a significant characteristic: a world where the languages live and evolve, and which influences interactions among individuals. The main goal of this research is to present a model which shows how the presence of a topological structure influences the communication among individuals and contributes to the emergence of clusters of different languages.} } @article{dipaolo00behavioralCoordination, author={E. A. Di Paolo}, title={Behavioral coordination, structural congruence and entrainment in a simulation of acoustically coupled agents}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={2000}, volume={8}, number={1}, pages={25-46}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dipaolo00behavioralCoordination.html}, keywords={Social behavior, embodied autonomous agents, acoustic interaction, coordina­ tion, entrainment, Structural congruence}, abstract={Social coordination is studied in a simulated model of autonomous embodied agents that interact acoustically. Theoretical concepts concerning social behavior are presented from a systemic perspective and their usefulness is evaluated in interpreting the results obtained. Two agents moving in an unstructured arena must locate each other, and remain within a short distance of one another for as long as possible using noisy continuous acoustic interaction. Evolved dynamical recurrent neural networks are used as the control architecture. Acoustic coupling poses nontrivial problems like discriminating `self' from `non­self' and structuring production of signals in time so as to minimize interference. Detailed observation of the most frequently evolved behavioral strategy shows that interacting agents perform rhythmic signals leading to the coordination of movement. During coordination, signals become entrained in an anti­phase mode that resembles turn­taking. Perturbation techniques show that signalling behavior not only performs an external function, but it is also integrated into the movement of the producing agent, thus showing the difficulty of separating behavior into social and non­ social classes. Structural congruence between agents is shown by exploring internal dynamics as well as the response of single agents in the presence of signalling beacons that reproduce the signal patterns of the interacting agents. Lack of entrainment with the signals produced by the beacons shows the importance of transient periods of mutual dynamic perturbation wherein agents achieve congruence.} } @phdthesis{dipaolo99onThe, author={E. A. Di Paolo}, title={On the Evolutionary and Behavioral Dynamics of Social Coordination: Models and Theoretical Aspects}, year={1999}, school={School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dipaolo99onThe.html}, abstract={An exploration is presented of the interplay between the situated activity of embodied autonomous organisms and the social dynamics they constitute in interaction, with special emphasis on evolutionary, ecological and behavioral aspects. The thesis offers a series of theoretical and methodological criticisms of recent investigations on the biology of social behavior and animal communication. An alternative theoretical framework, based on a systemic theory of biological autonomy, is provided to meet these criticisms and the elaboration of the corresponding theoretical arguments is supported by the construction and analysis of mathematical and computational models.

A game of action coordination is studied by a series of game-theoretic, ecological and computational models which, by means of systematic comparisons, permit the identification of the evolutionary relevance of different factors like finite populations, ecological and genetic constraints, spatial patterns, discreteness and stochasticity. Only in an individual-based model is it found that cooperative action coordination is evolutionarily stable. This is due to the emergence of spatial clusters in the spatial distribution of players which break many of the in-built symmetries of the game and act as invariants of the dynamics constraining the path of viable evolution.

An extension to this model explores other structuring effects by adding the possibility of parental influences on phenotypic development. The result is a further stabilization of cooperative coordination which is explained by the presence of self-promoting networks of developmental relationships which enslave the evolutionary dynamics.

The behavioral aspects involved in the attainment of a coordinated state between autonomous systems are studied in a simulated model of embodied agents coupled through an acoustic medium. Agents must locate and approach each other only by means of continuous acoustic signals. The results show the emergence of synchronized rhythmic signalling patterns that resemble turn-taking which is accompanied by coherent patterns of movement. It is demonstrated that coordination results from the achievement of structural congruence between the agents during interaction.} } @article{dipaolo98anInvestigation, author={E. A. Di Paolo}, title={An investigation into the evolution of communication}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={1998}, volume={6}, number={2}, pages={285-324}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dipaolo98anInvestigation.html}, keywords={evolution of communication; autopoiesis; action coordination; spatio-temporal constraints}, abstract={This article presents a theoretical criticism of current approaches to the study of the evolution of communication. In particular two very common preconceptions about the subject are analysed: the role of natural selection in the definition of the phenomenon and the metaphor of communication as information exchange. An alternative characterization is presented in terms of autopoietic theory which avoids the mentioned preconceptions. In support of this view, the evolution of coordinated activity is studied in a population of artificial agents playing an interactional game. Dynamical modeling of this evolutionary process based on game-theoretic considerations shows the existence of an evolutionarily stable strategy in the total lack of coordinated activity which, however, may be unreachable due to the presence of a periodic attractor. In a computational model of the same game, action coordination evolves, even with individual costs against it, due to the presence of spatial structuring processes. A detailed explanation of this phenomenon, which does not require kin selection, is presented. In an extended game, recursive coordination evolves nontrivially when the participants share all the relevant information, demonstrating that the metaphor of information exchange can be misleading. It is shown that agents engaged in this sort of interaction are able to perform beyond their individual capabilities.} } @inproceedings{dipaolo97socialCoordination, author={Ezequiel A. Di Paolo}, title={Social coordination and spatial organization: Steps towards the evolution of communication}, year={1997}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={Husbands, P. and Harvey, I.}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={ECAL97}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dipaolo97socialCoordination.html} } @article{dominey05sensorimotorSequenceABJ, author={Peter Ford Dominey}, title={From Sensorimotor Sequence to Grammatical Construction: Evidence from Simulation and Neurophysiology}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={2005}, volume={13}, number={4}, pages={347-361}, doi={10.1177/105971230501300401}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dominey05sensorimotorSequenceABJ.html}, keywords={language,neural network,simulation,sensorimotor sequence}, abstract={The current research describes a functional trajectory from sensorimotor sequence learning to the learning of grammatical constructions in language. A brief review of the functional neurophysiology of the cortex and basal ganglia will be provided as background for a neural network model of this system in sensorimotor sequence learning. Sequential behavior is then defined in terms of serial, temporal and abstract structure. The resulting neuro-computational framework is demonstrated to account for observed sequence learning behavior. More interestingly, this framework naturally extends to grammatical constructions as form-to-meaning mappings. Predictions from the neuro-computational model concerning parallels in language and cognitive sequence processing are tested against behavioral and neurophysiological observations in humans, resulting in a refinement of the allocation of model functions to subdivisions of Broca's area. From a functional perspective this analysis will provide insight into the relation between the coding structure in human languages, and constraints derived from the underlying neurophysiological computational mechanisms.} } @article{Dominey05grammaticalConstructions, author={Peter Ford Dominey}, title={Emergence of grammatical constructions: evidence from simulation and grounded agent experiments}, journal={Connection Science}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={17}, number={3-4}, pages={289-306}, doi={10.1080/09540090500270714}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Dominey05grammaticalConstructions.html}, keywords={Neural network, Language, Sensorimotor sequence, Grammatical construction}, abstract={This research takes grammatical constructions (sentence form-to-meaning mappings) as an alternative to abstract generative grammars in the context of understanding the emergence of language. A model of sentence processing based on this construction grammar approach is presented, and then a series of neuropsychological and neurophysiological studies are reviewed that attempt to validate the model and to establish its neurophysiological underpinnings. The resulting model is demonstrated to provide insight into a developmental and evolutionary passage from unitary idiom-like holophrases to progressively more abstract grammatical constructions. The model is then functionally validated by its insertion into a perceptually grounded system that allows spoken language interaction with a human interlocutor. The potential utility of this emergence approach in understanding language is discussed.} } @article{dominey01grounding, author={Peter Ford Dominey}, title={Conceptual grounding in simulation studies of language acquisition}, journal={Evolution of Communication}, year={2001}, volume={4}, number={1}, pages={57-85}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dominey01grounding.html} } @article{dominey05groundedRobot, author={Peter Ford Dominey and Jean-David Boucher}, title={Developmental stages of perception and language acquisition in a perceptually grounded robot}, journal={Cognitive Systems Research}, year={2005}, month={September}, volume={6}, number={3}, pages={243-259}, doi={10.1016/j.cogsys.2004.11.005}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dominey05groundedRobot.html}, keywords={Language acquisition; Event perception; Grammatical construction; Neural network}, abstract={The objective of this research is to develop a system for language learning based on a ``minimum'' of pre-wired language-specific functionality, that is compatible with observations of perceptual and language capabilities in the human developmental trajectory. In the proposed system, meaning (in terms of descriptions of events and spatial relations) is extracted from video images based on detection of position, motion, physical contact and their parameters. Meaning extraction requires attentional mechanisms that are implemented from low-level perceptual primitives. Mapping of sentence form to meaning is performed by learning grammatical constructions, i.e., sentence to meaning mappings as defined by Goldberg [Goldberg, A. (1995). Constructions. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press]. These are stored and retrieved from a ``construction inventory'' based on the constellation of grammatical function words uniquely identifying the target sentence structure. The resulting system displays robust acquisition behavior that reproduces certain observations from developmental studies, with very modest ``innate'' language specificity.} } @incollection{donald98mimesisAnd, author={M. Donald}, title={Mimesis and the executive suite: Missing links in language evolution}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/donald98mimesisAnd.html} } @article{dor01selection, author={Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka}, title={From Cultural Selection to Genetic Selection: A Framework for the Evolution of Language}, journal={Selection}, year={2001}, volume={1}, number={1-3}, pages={33-56}, doi={10.1556/Select.1.2000.1-3.5}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dor01selection.html}, keywords={Cultural evolution, genetic assimilation, linguistic semantics, syntax.semantics interface, island constraints}, abstract={This paper is an attempt to construct a programmatic framework for the evolution of human language. First, we pres- ent a novel characterization of language, which is based on some of the most recent research results in linguistics. As these results suggest, language is best characterized as a specialized communication system, dedicated to the expres- sion of a surprisingly constrained set of meanings. This characterization calls for an account of the evolution of lan- guage in terms of the interaction between cultural and genetic evolution. We develop such an evolutionary model on the basis of the mechanism of culturally-driven genetic assimilation. As we show, a careful analysis of the diverse effects of this mechanism derives some of the most crucial properties of the evolved linguistic capacity as a specific, functional communication system.} } @article{dorogovtsev01languageAs, author={S. N. Dorogovtsev and J. F. F. Mendes}, title={Language as an evolving word web}, journal={Proceedings of The Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, year={2001}, month={December}, volume={268}, number={1485}, pages={2603-2606}, doi={10.1098/rspb.2001.1824}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dorogovtsev01languageAs.html}, keywords={evolution of language, word web, interaction of words, kernel lexicon}, abstract={Human language may be described as a complex network of linked words. In such a treatment, each distinct word in language is a vertex of this web, and interacting words in sentences are connected by edges. The empirical distribution of the number of connections of words in this network is of a peculiar form that includes two pronounced power-law regions. Here we propose a theory of the evolution of language, which treats language as a self-organizing network of interacting words. In the framework of this concept., we completely describe the observed word web structure without any fitting. We show that the two regimes in the distribution naturally emerge from the evolutionary dynamics of the word web. It follows front our theory that the size of the core part of language, the 'kernel lexicon', does not vary as language evolves.} } @inproceedings{dowman07ECAL, author={Mike Dowman}, title={Protolanguages That Are Semi-holophrastic}, year={2007}, pages={435-444}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={ECAL07}, doi={10.1007/978-3-540-74913-4_44}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman07ECAL.html}, keywords={Language Evolution,Protolanguage,Synthetic,Analytic,Holophrasis,Iterated Learning}, abstract={There is an ongoing debate about whether the words in the first languages spoken by humans expressed single concepts or complex holophrases. A computer model was used to investigate the nature of the protolanguages that would arise if speakers could associate words and meanings, but lacked any productive ability beyond saying the word whose past uses most closely matched the meaning that they wished to express. It was found that both words expressing single concepts, and holophrastic words could arise, depending on the conceptual and articulatory abilities of the agents. However, most words were of an intermediate type, as they expressed more than a single concept but less than a holophrase. The model therefore demonstrates that protolanguages may have been of types that are not usually considered in the debate over the nature of the first human languages.} } @inproceedings{dowman05colourTerms, author={M. Dowman}, title={Investigating the Effect of Random Noise on the Evolution of Colour Terms}, year={2005}, booktitle={Proceedings of IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman05colourTerms.html}, abstract={The effect of adding noise to an expression-induction model of language evolution was investigated. The model consisted of a number of artificial people who were able to infer the denotation of basic colour terms from examples of colours which the words had been used to identify, using a Bayesian inference procedure. The artificial people would express colours to one-another, so producing data from which other people could learn. Occasionally they would be creative, which allowed new words to enter the language. When certain points in the colour space were made especially salient, so that the artificial people were more likely to remember colours at these points, the languages emerging over a number of generations in evolutionary simulations replicated the typological patterns seen in the 110 languages of the world colour survey. It was found that if random noise was added to the data from which the artificial people learned, this had no major effect on the emergent languages, demonstrating that the Bayesian inference procedure is able to learn effectively despite the presence of random noise, even when placed in an evolutionary context.} } @phdthesis{dowman04PhD-ColorLanguage, author={Mike Dowman}, title={Colour Terms, Syntax and Bayes: Modelling Acquisition and Evolution}, year={2004}, school={School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman04PhDColorLanguage.html}, abstract={This thesis investigates language acquisition and evolution, using the methodologies of Bayesian inference and expression-induction modelling, making specific reference to colour term typology, and syntactic acquisition. In order to test Berlin and Kay’s (1969) hypothesis that the typological patterns observed in basic colour term systems are produced by a process of cultural evolution under the influence of universal aspects of human neurophysiology, an expression-induction model was created. Ten artificial people were simulated, each of which was a computational agent. These people could learn colour term denotations by generalizing from examples using Bayesian inference, and the resulting denotations had the prototype properties characteristic of basic colour terms. Conversations between these people, in which they learned from one-another, were simulated over several generations, and the languages emerging at the end of each simulation were investigated. The proportion of colour terms of each type correlated closely with the equivalent frequencies found in the World Colour Survey, and most of the emergent languages could be placed on one of the evolutionary trajectories proposed by Kay and Maffi (1999). The simulation therefore demonstrates how typological patterns can emerge as a result of learning biases acting over a period of time.

Further work applied the minimum description length form of Bayesian inference to modelling syntactic acquisition. The particular problem investigated was the acquisition of the dative alternation in English. This alternation presents a learnability paradox, because only some verbs alternate, but children typically do not receive reliable evidence indicating which verbs do not participate in the alternation (Pinker, 1989). The model presented in this thesis took note of the frequency with which each verb occurred in each subcategorization, and so was able to infer which subcategorizations were conspicuously absent, and so presumably ungrammatical. Crucially, it also incorporated a measure of grammar complexity, and a preference for simpler grammars, so that more general grammars would be learned unless there was sufficient evidence to support the incorporation of some restriction. The model was able to learn the correct subcategorizations for both alternating and non-alternating verbs, and could generalise to allow novel verbs to appear in both constructions. When less data was observed, it also overgeneralized the alternation, which is a behaviour characteristic of children when they are learning verb subcategorizations. These results demonstrate that the dative alternation is learnable, and therefore that universal grammar may not be necessary to account for syntactic acquisition. Overall, these results suggest that the forms of languages may be determined to a much greater extent by learning, and by cumulative historical changes, than would be expected if the universal grammar hypothesis were correct.} } @article{dowman02modeling, author={Mike Dowman}, title={Modeling Language as a Product of Learning and Social Interactions}, journal={Cognitive Systems}, year={2003}, volume={6}, number={1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman02modeling.html}, abstract={Computational models were constructed to investigate how the meanings of basic colour terms were learned, and to determine why these words have prototype properties, and why they partition the colour space. A Bayesian model of acquisition was able to learn colo ur term systems with these properties, but could equally well learn colour term systems which did not partition the colour space or have prototype properties, and so it failed to explain the empirical data concerning these words. Computational evolutionary simulations were then conducted by creating a community of artificial people using multiple copies of the Bayesian model. These artificial people then learned colour words from one-another, and colour term systems were allowed to evolve over a number of generations. The emergent colour terms always partitioned the colour space and had prototype properties. These results demonstrate that the Bayesian model is able to account for the properties of colour term systems only when it is placed in a social contex t and so they provide evidence of the importance of understanding language as a product of both psychology and social interaction.} } @inproceedings{dowman03colorTermTypology, author={Mike Dowman}, title={Explaining Color Term Typology as the Product of Cultural Evolution using a Multi-agent Model}, year={2003}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman03colorTermTypology.html}, abstract={An expression-induction model was used to simulate the evolution of basic color terms in order to test Berlin and Kay's (1969) hypothesis that the typological patterns observed in basic color term systems are produced by a process of cultural evolution under the influence of universal aspects of human neurophysiology. Ten agents were simulated, each of which could learn color term denotations by generalizing from examples using Bayesian inference. Conversations between these agents, in which agents would learn from one-another, were simulated over several generations, and the languages emerging at the end of each simulation were investigated. The proportion of color terms of each type correlated closely with the equivalent frequencies found in the world color survey, and most of the emergent languages could be placed on one of the evolutionary trajectories proposed by Kay and Maffi (1999). The simulation therefore demonstrates how typological patterns can emerge as a result of learning biases acting over a period of time.} } @inproceedings{dowman06innatenessAndCulture, author={Mike Dowman and Simon Kirby and Thomas L. Griffiths}, title={Innateness and culture in the evolution of language}, year={2006}, pages={83-90}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dowman06innatenessAndCulture.html}, abstract={Is the range of languages we observe today explainable in terms of which languages can be learned easily and which cannot? If so, the key to understanding language is to understand innate learning biases, and the process of biological evolution through which they have evolved. Using mathematical and computer modelling, we show how a very small bias towards regularity can be accentuated by the process of cultural transmission in which language is passed from generation to generation, resulting in languages that are overwhelmingly regular. Cultural evolution therefore plays as big a role as prior bias in determining the form of emergent languages, showing that language can only be explained in terms of the interaction of biological evolution, individual development, and cultural transmission.} } @inproceedings{dras03emergent, author={Mark Dras and David Harrison and Berk Kapicioglu}, title={Emergent Behavior in Phonological Pattern Change}, year={2003}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life VIII}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dras03emergent.html}, abstract={Language change has recently come to be seen as a complex dynamical system, along the lines of evolutionary biology and economics, as opposed to previous conceptions as a linear or cyclical system. We model the change of a particular phenomenon, vowel harmony, and look at the conditions under which the trajectory of change matches theoretical and empirical predictions. Our experimental work shows that there are certain conditions under which the desired trajectories do not occur, implying that absence of these conditions is necessary for accurate modeling of language change.} } @incollection{dunbar04music, author={R. Dunbar}, title={Language, Music and Laughter in Evolutionary Perspective}, year={2004}, pages={257-274}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunbar04music.html} } @incollection{dunbar03theOrigin, author={Robin Dunbar}, title={The Origin and Subsequent Evolution of Language}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunbar03theOrigin.html} } @incollection{dunbar98theoryOf, author={R. Dunbar}, title={Theory of mind and the evolution of language}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunbar98theoryOf.html} } @book{dunbar98groomingGossip, author={Robin Dunbar}, title={Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language}, year={1998}, month={October}, publisher={Harvard Univ Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunbar98groomingGossip.html} } @article{dunbar93coevolutionOf, author={R. Dunbar}, title={Coevolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1993}, volume={16}, number={4}, pages={681-735}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunbar93coevolutionOf.html}, keywords={Neocortical size, group size, humans, language, Macchiavellian Intelligence}, abstract={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.} } @article{dunn05ancientLanguageSCIENCE, author={Michael Dunn and Angela Terrill and Ger Reesink and Robert A. Foley and Stephen C. Levinson}, title={Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient Language History}, journal={Science}, year={2005}, month={September}, volume={309}, number={5743}, pages={2072-2075}, doi={10.1126/science.1114615}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dunn05ancientLanguageSCIENCE.html}, abstract={The contribution of language history to the study of the early dispersals of modern humans throughout the Old World has been limited by the shallow time depth (about 8000 ± 2000 years) of current linguistic methods. Here it is shown that the application of biological cladistic methods, not to vocabulary (as has been previously tried) but to language structure (sound systems and grammar), may extend the time depths at which language data can be used. The method was tested against well-understood families of Oceanic Austronesian languages, then applied to the Papuan languages of Island Melanesia, a group of hitherto unrelatable isolates. Papuan languages show an archipelago-based phylogenetic signal that is consistent with the current geographical distribution of languages. The most plausible hypothesis to explain this result is the divergence of the Papuan languages from a common ancestral stock, as part of late Pleistocene dispersals.} } @incollection{dyer95towardThe, author={M. Dyer}, title={Toward the Acquisition of Language and the Evolution of Communication}, year={1995}, pages={393-412}, chapter={16}, editor={H. Roitblat and J.A. Meyer}, publisher={Bradford Book/MIT Press}, booktitle={Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dyer95towardThe.html} } @article{dyer94alife, author={Michael G. Dyer}, title={Toward Synthesizing Artificial Neural Networks that Exhibit Cooperative Intelligent Behavior: Some Open Issues in Artificial Life}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={1994}, volume={1}, number={1}, pages={111-134}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dyer94alife.html}, keywords={artificial neural networks, evolution of communication, evolution of predation, cooperative behavior, genetic algorithm}, abstract={The tasks that animals perform require a high degree of intelligence. Animals forage for food, migrate, navigate, court mates, rear offspring, defend against predators, construct nests, and so on. These tasks commonly require social interaction/cooperation and are accomplished by animal nervous systems, which are the result of billions of years of evolution and complex developmental/learning processes. The Artificial Life (AL) approach to synthesizing intelligent behavior is guided by this biological perspective. In this article we examine some of the numerous open problems in synthesizing intelligent animal behavior (especially cooperative behavior involving communication) that face the field of AL, a discipline still in its infancy.} } @incollection{dyer92distributedSymbol, author={M. G. Dyer and M. Flowers and Y. A. Wang}, title={Distributed Symbol Discovery through Symbol Recirculation: Toward Natural Language Processing in Distributed Connectionist Networks}, year={1992}, pages={21-48}, chapter={2}, editor={R. Reilly and N. Sharkey}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Publ.}, booktitle={Connectionist Approaches to Natural Language Understanding}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/dyer92distributedSymbol.html} } @article{eastman82aComment, author={Caroline M. Eastman}, title={A comment on English neologisms and programming language keywords}, journal={Communications of the ACM}, year={1982}, month={December}, volume={25}, number={12}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/eastman82aComment.html}, abstract={The choice of keywords in the design of programming languages is compared to the formation of neologisms, or new words, in natural languages. Examination of keywords in high-level programming languages shows that they are formed using mechanisms analogous to those observed in English. The use of mirror words as closing keywords is a conspicuous exceptions.} } @mastersthesis{eddy05thesisIteratedLearning, author={Joseph Charles Eddy}, title={Iterated Learning: The Exemplar-based Learning Approach}, year={2005}, school={Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, The University of Edinburgh}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/eddy05thesisIteratedLearning.html} } @article{edelman04bookreview, author={Shimon Edelman and Bo Pedersen}, title={Review of ``Linguistic evolution through language acquisition: Formal and computational models'' by Ted Briscoe, 2002}, journal={Journal of Linguistics}, year={2004}, volume={40}, number={2}, pages={14-18}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/edelman04bookreview.html} } @inproceedings{edelman04cogsci, author={Shimon Edelman and Zach Solan and David Horn and Eytan Ruppin}, title={Bridging computational, formal and psycholinguistic approaches to language}, year={2004}, address={Chicago, IL}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/edelman04cogsci.html} } @inproceedings{edelman03nips-workshop, author={Shimon Edelman and Zach Solan and David Horn and Eytan Ruppin}, title={Rich Syntax from a Raw Corpus: Unsupervised Does It}, year={2003}, booktitle={Syntax, Semantics and Statistics Workshop of NIPS-2003}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/edelman03nipsworkshop.html} } @inproceedings{egashira00theFormation, author={S. Egashira and T. Hashimoto}, title={The Formation of Common Norms on the Assumption of `Fundamentally' Imperfect Information}, year={2000}, editor={Rosaria Conte and Chris Dellarocas}, booktitle={Social Order in Multiagent Systems: Workshop on Norms and Institutions in Multi-Agent Systems (Held in conjunction with Autonomous Agents'2000)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/egashira00theFormation.html} } @article{ekstig04meme, author={Borje Ekstig}, title={The Evolution of Language and Science Studied by means of Biological Concepts}, journal={Journal of Memetics}, year={2004}, volume={8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ekstig04meme.html}, keywords={Evolution, development, memes, cultural evolution, language, science, mathematics}, abstract={This study examines certain mechanisms underlying the evolution of language and science - including mathematics - using concepts developed in the field of biological evolution. Developmental processes are particularly emphasized. Analysis of developmental processes, processes such as human embryonic development, children's verbal development, and adolescents' scientific conceptual development reveals the unifying principle referred to as 'condensation' - the successive shortening of developmental stages. The mechanism of condensation is coupled to the rate of evolutionary change.

The analysis examines the applicability of the concept of the meme. Regarding the evolution of language, we suggest a cooperative combination of genetic and memetic replication; while early on in the evolution of science only memetic replication is envisaged.} } @incollection{elman99theEmergence, author={J. L. Elman}, title={The emergence of language: A conspiracy theory}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman99theEmergence.html} } @inproceedings{elman98generalizationSimple, author={J. L. Elman}, title={Generalization, simple recurrent networks, and the emergence of structure}, year={1998}, address={Mahwah, NJ}, editor={M.A. Gernsbacher and S.J. Derry}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman98generalizationSimple.html} } @incollection{elman95languageAs, author={J. L. Elman}, title={Language as a dynamical system}, year={1995}, pages={195-223}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={R.F. Port and T. van Gelder}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman95languageAs.html} } @article{elman93cognition, author={J.L. Elman}, title={Learning and development in neural networks: The importance of starting small}, journal={Cognition}, year={1993}, volume={48}, number={1}, pages={71-99}, doi={10.1016/0010-0277(93)90058-4}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman93cognition.html}, abstract={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.} } @article{elman91distributedRepresentations, author={J. L. Elman}, title={Distributed representations, simple recurrent networks, and grammatical structure}, journal={Machine Learning}, year={1991}, volume={7}, pages={195-224}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman91distributedRepresentations.html} } @article{elman90findingStructure, author={Jeffrey L. Elman}, title={Finding structure in time}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={1990}, volume={14}, number={2}, pages={179--211}, doi={10.1016/0364-0213(90)90002-E}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman90findingStructure.html}, abstract={Time underlies many interesting human behaviors. Thus, the question of how to represent time in connectionist models is very important. One approach is to represent time implicitly by its effects on processing rather than explicitly (as in a spatial representation). The current report develops a proposal along these lines first described by Jordan (1986) which involves the use of recurrent links in order to provide networks with a dynamic memory. In this approach, hidden unit patterns are fed back to themselves; the internal representations which develop thus reflect task demands in the context of prior internal states. A set of simulations is reported which range from relatively simple problems (temporal version of XOR) to discovering syntactic/semantic features for words. The networks are able to learn interesting internal representations which incorporate task demands with memory demands; indeed, in this approach the notion of memory is inextricably bound up with task processing. These representations reveal a rich structure, which allows them to be highly context-dependent while also expressing generalizations across classes of items. These representations suggest a method for representing lexical categories and the type/token distinction.} } @article{enard02FOXP2, author={Wolfgang Enard and Molly Przeworski and Simon E. Fisher and Cecilia S. L. Lai and Victor Wiebe and Takashi Kitano and Anthony P. Monaco and Svante Paabo}, title={Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language}, journal={Nature}, year={2002}, volume={418}, pages={869-872}, doi={10.1038/nature01025}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/enard02FOXP2.html}, abstract={Language is a uniquely human trait likely to have been a prerequisite for the development of human culture. The ability to develop articulate speech relies on capabilities, such as fine control of the larynx and mouth, that are absent in chimpanzees and other great apes. FOXP2 is the first gene relevant to the human ability to develop language. A point mutation in FOXP2 co-segregates with a disorder in a family in which half of the members have severe articulation difficulties accompanied by linguistic and grammatical impairment. This gene is disrupted by translocation in an unrelated individual who has a similar disorder. Thus, two functional copies of FOXP2 seem to be required for acquisition of normal spoken language. We sequenced the complementary DNAs that encode the FOXP2 protein in the chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-utan, rhesus macaque and mouse, and compared them with the human cDNA. We also investigated intraspecific variation of the human FOXP2 gene. Here we show that human FOXP2 contains changes in amino-acid coding and a pattern of nucleotide polymorphism, which strongly suggest that this gene has been the target of selection during recent human evolution.} } @inproceedings{erbach04EELC, author={Gregor Erbach}, title={Mapping, Measuring, and Modelling the Diffusion of Linguistic Material on the Internet}, year={2004}, address={Kanazawa, Japan}, booktitle={First International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/erbach04EELC.html} } @inproceedings{erdem03PADL, author={E. Erdem and V. Lifschitz and L. Nakhleh and D. Ringe}, title={Reconstructing the evolutionary history of Indo-European languages using answer set programming}, year={2003}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages (PADL 03)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/erdem03PADL.html}, abstract={The evolutionary history of languages can be modeled as a tree, called a phylogeny, where the leaves represent the extant lan- guages, the internal vertices represent the ancestral languages, and the edges represent the genetic relations between the languages. Languages not only inherit characteristics from their ancestors but also sometimes borrow them from other languages. Such borrowings can be represented by additional non-tree edges. This paper addresses the problem of com- puting a small number of additional edges that turn a phylogeny into a 'perfect phylogenetic network'. To solve this problem, we use answer set programming, which represents a given computational problem as a logic program whose answer sets correspond to solutions. Using the answer set solver smodels, with some heuristics and optimization tech- niques, we have generated a few conjectures regarding the evolution of Indo-European languages.} } @article{erdem05temporalPhylogeneticNetwork, author={Esra Erdem and Vladimir Lifschitz and Don Ringe}, title={Temporal phylogenetic networks and logic programming}, journal={Theory and Practice of Logic Programming}, year={2005}, note={To appear}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/erdem05temporalPhylogeneticNetwork.html}, abstract={The concept of a temporal phylogenetic network is a mathematical model of evolution of a family of natural languages. It takes into account the fact that languages can trade their characteristics with each other when linguistic communities are in contact, and also that a contact is only possible when the languages are spoken at the same time. We show how computational methods of answer set programming and constraint logic programming can be used to generate plausible conjectures about contacts between prehistoric linguistic communities, and illustrate our approach by applying it to the evolutionary history of Indo-European languages.} } @incollection{evans04PhylogeneticMethods, author={S.N. Evans and Don Ringe and Tandy Warnow}, title={Inference of divergence times as a statistical inverse problem}, year={2006}, pages={119-}, chapter={10}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/evans04PhylogeneticMethods.html} } @techreport{farquhar95collaborativeOntology, author={A. Farquhar and R. Fikes and W. Pratt and J. Rice}, title={Collaborative ontology construction for information integration}, year={1995}, institution={Stanford University}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/farquhar95collaborativeOntology.html} } @article{farrell93meaningAnd, author={Joseph Farrell}, title={Meaning and credibility in cheap-talk games}, journal={Games and Economic Behavior}, year={1993}, volume={5}, number={4}, pages={514-31}, doi={10.1006/game.1993.1029}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/farrell93meaningAnd.html}, abstract={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.} } @article{ferrer06isolatedSignals, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={When language breaks into pieces: A conflict between communication through isolated signals and language}, journal={Biosystems}, year={2006}, month={June}, volume={84}, number={3}, pages={242-253}, doi={10.1016/j.biosystems.2005.12.001}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer06isolatedSignals.html}, keywords={Zipf's law; Communication; Human language; Syntax; Symbolic reference; Schizophrenia}, abstract={Here, we study a communication model where signals associate to stimuli. The model assumes that signals follow Zipf's law and the exponent of the law depends on a balance between maximizing the information transfer and saving the cost of signal use. We study the effect of tuning that balance on the structure of signal-stimulus associations. The model starts from two recent results. First, the exponent grows as the weight of information transfer increases. Second, a rudimentary form of language is obtained when the network of signal-stimulus associations is almost connected. Here, we show the existence of a sudden destruction of language once a critical balance is crossed. The model shows that maximizing the information transfer through isolated signals and language are in conflict. The model proposes a strong reason for not finding large exponents in complex communication systems: language is in danger. Besides, the findings suggest that human words may need to be ambiguous to keep language alive. Interestingly, the model predicts that large exponents should be associated to decreased synaptic density. It is not surprising that the largest exponents correspond to schizophrenic patients since, according to the spirit of Feinberg's hypothesis, i.e. decreased synaptic density may lead to schizophrenia. Our findings suggest that the exponent of Zipf's law is intimately related to language and that it could be used to detect anomalous structure and organization of the brain.} } @article{ferrer05zipfLawVariation, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={The variation of Zipf's law in human language}, journal={European Physical Journal B}, year={2005}, volume={44}, number={2}, pages={249-257}, doi={10.1140/epjb/e2005-00121-8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer05zipfLawVariation.html}, abstract={Words in humans follow the so-called Zipf's law. More precisely, the word frequency spectrum follows a power function, whose typical exponent is $\beta \approx 2$, but significant variations are found. We hypothesize that the full range of variation reflects our ability to balance the goal of communication, i.e. maximizing the information transfer and the cost of communication, imposed by the limitations of the human brain. We show that the higher the importance of satisfying the goal of communication, the higher the exponent. Here, assuming that words are used according to their meaning we explain why variation in $\beta$ should be limited to a particular domain. From the one hand, we explain a non-trivial lower bound at about $\beta=1.6$ for communication systems neglecting the goal of the communication. From the other hand, we find a sudden divergence of $\beta$ if a certain critical balance is crossed. At the same time a sharp transition to maximum information transfer and unfortunately, maximum communication cost, is found. Consistently with the upper bound of real exponents, the maximum finite value predicted is about $\beta=2.4$. It is convenient for human language not to cross the transition and remain in a domain where maximum information transfer is high but at a reasonable cost. Therefore, only a particular range of exponents should be found in human speakers. The exponent $\beta$ contains information about the balance between cost and communicative efficiency.} } @incollection{cancho05syntacticNetwork, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={The structure of syntactic dependency networks: insights from recent advances in network theory}, year={2005}, pages={60-75}, editor={Levickij V. and Altmman G.}, publisher={}, booktitle={Problems of quantitative linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/cancho05syntacticNetwork.html}, abstract={Complex networks have received substantial attention from physics recently. Here we review from a physics perspective the different linguistic networks that have been studied. We focus on syntactic dependency networks and summarize some recent strong results that suggest new possible ways of understanding the universal properties of world languages.} } @article{ferrer05ZipfLawPhaseTransition, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={Zipf's law from a communicative phase transition}, journal={European Physical Journal B}, year={2005}, volume={47}, number={3}, pages={449-457}, doi={10.1140/epjb/e2005-00340-y}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer05ZipfLawPhaseTransition.html}, abstract={Here we present a new model for Zipf's law in human word frequencies. The model defines the goal and the cost of communication using information theory. The model shows a continuous phase transition from a no communication to a perfect communication phase. Scaling consistent with Zipf's law is found in the boundary between phases. The exponents are consistent with minimizing the entropy of words. The model differs from a previous model [Ferrer i Cancho, SoléProc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 788–791 (2003)] in two aspects. First, it assumes that the probability of experiencing a certain stimulus is controlled by the internal structure of the communication system rather than by the probability of experiencing it in the `outside' world, which makes it specially suitable for the speech of schizophrenics. Second, the exponent ? predicted for the frequency versus rank distribution is in a range where ?>1, which may explain that of some schizophrenics and some children, with ?=1.5-1.6. Among the many models for Zipf's law, none explains Zipf's law for that particular range of exponents. In particular, two simplistic models fail to explain that particular range of exponents: intermittent silence and Simon's model. We support that Zipf's law in a communication system may maximize the information transfer under constraints.} } @article{ferrer04physicaA, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={Decoding least effort and scaling in signal frequency distributions}, journal={Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications}, year={2005}, month={January}, volume={345}, number={1-2}, pages={275-284}, doi={10.1016/j.physa.2004.06.158}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer04physicaA.html}, keywords={Zipf's law; Scaling; Human language; Animal communication}, abstract={Here, assuming a general communication model where objects map to signals, a power function for the distribution of signal frequencies is derived. The model relies on the satisfaction of the receiver (hearer) communicative needs when the entropy of the number of objects per signal is maximized. Evidence of power distributions in a linguistic context (some of them with exponents clearly different from the typical \beta \approximate 2 of Zipf's law) is reviewed and expanded. We support the view that Zipf's law reflects some sort of optimization but following a novel realistic approach where signals (e.g. words) are used according to the objects (e.g. meanings) they are linked to. Our results strongly suggest that many systems in nature use non-trivial strategies for easing the interpretation of a signal. Interestingly, constraining just the number of interpretations of signals does not lead to scaling.} } @article{ferrer04EuclideanDistancePRE, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={The Euclidean distance between syntactically linked words}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2004}, volume={70}, pages={056135}, doi={10.1103/PhysRevE.70.056135}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer04EuclideanDistancePRE.html}, abstract={We study the Euclidean distance between syntactically linked words in sentences. The average distance is significantly small and is a very slowly growing function of sentence length. We consider two nonexcluding hypotheses: (a) the average distance is minimized and (b) the average distance is constrained. Support for (a) comes from the significantly small average distance real sentences achieve. The strength of the minimization hypothesis decreases with the length of the sentence. Support for (b) comes from the very slow growth of the average distance versus sentence length. Furthermore, (b) predicts, under ideal conditions, an exponential distribution of the distance between linked words, a trend that can be identified in real sentences.} } @phdthesis{ferrer-i-cancho2003phdthesis, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho}}, title={Language: universals, principles and origins}, year={2003}, school={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrericancho2003phdthesis.html} } @article{ferrer07communicativeEnergy, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Albert Diaz-Guilera}, title={The global minima of the communicative energy of natural communication systems}, journal={Journal of Statistical Mechanics}, year={2007}, volume={6}, pages={P06009}, doi={10.1088/1742-5468/2007/06/P06009}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer07communicativeEnergy.html}, keywords={exact results, random graphs, networks, stochastic search, communication, supply and information networks}, abstract={Until recently, models of communication have explicitly or implicitly assumed that the goal of a communication system is just maximizing the information transfer between signals and 'meanings'. Recently, it has been argued that a natural communication system not only has to maximize this quantity but also has to minimize the entropy of signals, which is a measure of the cognitive cost of using a word. The interplay between these two factors, i.e. maximization of the information transfer and minimization of the entropy, has been addressed previously using a Monte Carlo minimization procedure at zero temperature. Here we derive analytically the globally optimal communication systems that result from the interaction between these factors. We discuss the implications of our results for previous studies within this framework. In particular we prove that the emergence of Zipf's law using a Monte Carlo technique at zero temperature in previous studies indicates that the system had not reached the global optimum.} } @article{ferrer05consequencesOfZipfLaw, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Oliver Riordan and Bela Bollobas}, title={The consequences of Zipf's law for syntax and symbolic reference}, journal={Proceedings of The Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, year={2005}, doi={10.1098/rspb.2004.2957}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer05consequencesOfZipfLaw.html}, keywords={Zipf's Law, Syntax, Symbolic Reference, Human Language}, abstract={Although many species possess rudimentary communication systems, humans seem to be unique with regard to making use of syntax and symbolic reference. Recent approaches to the evolution of language formalize why syntax is selectively advantageous compared with isolated signal communication systems, but do not explain how signals naturally combine. Even more recent work has shown that if a communication system maximizes communicative efficiency while minimizing the cost of communication, or if a communication system constrains ambiguity in a non-trivial way while a certain entropy is maximized, signal frequencies will be distributed according to Zipf's law. Here we show that such communication principles give rise not only to signals that have many traits in common with the linking words in real human languages, but also to a rudimentary sort of syntax and symbolic reference.} } @article{ferrer05zipfLawSimpleModels, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Vito D.P. Servedio}, title={Can simple models explain Zipf's law in all cases?}, journal={Glottometrics}, year={2005}, volume={11}, pages={1-8}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer05zipfLawSimpleModels.html}, keywords={Zipf's law, Simon model, intermittent silence}, abstract={H. Simon proposed a simple stochastic process for explaining Zipf's law for word frequencies. Here we introduce two similar generalizations of Simon's model that cover the same range of exponents as the standard Simon model. The mathematical approach followed minimizes the amount of mathematical background needed for deriving the exponent, compared to previous approaches to the standard Simon's model. Reviewing what is known from other simple explanations of Zipf's law, we conclude there is no single radically simple explanation covering the whole range of variation of the exponent of Zipf's law in humans. The meaningfulness of Zipf's law for word frequencies remains an open question.} } @article{ferrer04syntaxPRE, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Ricard V. Sole}, title={Patterns in syntactic dependency networks}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2004}, volume={69}, pages={051915}, doi={10.1103/PhysRevE.69.051915}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer04syntaxPRE.html}, abstract={Many languages are spoken on Earth. Despite their diversity, many robust language universals are known to exist. All languages share syntax, i.e., the ability of combining words for forming sentences. The origin of such traits is an issue of open debate. By using recent developments from the statistical physics of complex networks, we show that different syntactic dependency networks (from Czech, German, and Romanian) share many nontrivial statistical patterns such as the small world phenomenon, scaling in the distribution of degrees, and disassortative mixing. Such previously unreported features of syntax organization are not a trivial consequence of the structure of sentences, but an emergent trait at the global scale.} } @article{ferrer03leasteffort, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Ricard V. Sole}, title={Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language}, journal={PNAS}, year={2003}, volume={100}, pages={788-791}, doi={10.1073/pnas.0335980100}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer03leasteffort.html}, abstract={The emergence of a complex language is one of the fundamental events of human evolution, and several remarkable features suggest the presence of fundamental principles of organization. These principles seem to be common to all languages. The best known is the so-called Zipf's law, which states that the frequency of a word decays as a (universal) power law of its rank. The possible origins of this law have been controversial, and its meaningfulness is still an open question. In this article, the early hypothesis of Zipf of a principle of least effort for explaining the law is shown to be sound. Simultaneous minimization in the effort of both hearer and speaker is formalized with a simple optimization process operating on a binary matrix of signal-object associations. Zipf's law is found in the transition between referentially useless systems and indexical reference systems. Our finding strongly suggests that Zipf's law is a hallmark of symbolic reference and not a meaningless feature. The implications for the evolution of language are discussed. We explain how language evolution can take advantage of a communicative phase transition.} } @article{ferrer02zipf, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Ricard V. Sole}, title={Zipf's law and random texts}, journal={Advances in Complex Systems}, year={2002}, volume={5}, number={1}, pages={1-6}, doi={10.1142/S0219525902000468}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer02zipf.html}, keywords={Human language; scaling; Zipf's law; monkey languages; random texts}, abstract={Random-text models have been proposed as an explanation for the power law relationship between word frequency and rank, the so-called Zipf's law. They are generally regarded as null hypotheses rather than models in the strict sense. In this context, recent theories of language emergence and evolution assume this law as a priori information with no need of explanation. Here, random texts and real texts are compared through (a) the so-called lexical spectrum and (b) the distribution of words having the same length. It is shown that real texts fill the lexical spectrum much more efficiently and regardless of the word length, suggesting that the meaningfulness of Zipf's law is high.} } @article{ferrer01twoRegimes, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Ricard V. Sole}, title={Two regimes in the frequency of words and the origins of complex lexicons: Zipf's law revisited}, journal={Journal of Quantitative Linguistics}, year={2001}, volume={8}, number={3}, pages={165-173}, doi={10.1076/jqul.8.3.165.4101}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer01twoRegimes.html}, keywords={Zipf's law, origin of language, scaling}, abstract={Zipf's law states that the frequency of a word is a power function of its rank. The exponent of the power is usually accepted to be close to (-)1. Great deviations between the predicted and real number of different words of a text, disagreements between the predicted and real exponent of the probability density function and statistics on a big corpus, make evident that word frequency as a function of the rank follows two different exponents, \approx (-)1 for the first regime and \approx (-)2 for the second. The implications of the change in exponents for the metrics of texts and for the origins of complex lexicons are analyzed.} } @article{ferrer01theSmall, author={Ramon {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and Ricard V. Sole}, title={The small world of human language}, journal={Proceedings of The Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences}, year={2001}, month={November}, volume={268}, number={1482}, pages={2261-2265}, doi={10.1098/rspb.2001.1800}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrer01theSmall.html}, keywords={Small-world, scaling, lexical networks, human language}, abstract={Words in human language interact in sentences in non-random ways, and allow humans to construct an astronomic variety of sentences from a limited number of discrete units. This construction process is extremely fast and robust. The co-occurrence of words in sentences reflects language organization in a subtle manner that can be described in terms of a graph of word interactions. Here, we show that such graphs display two important features recently found in a disparate number of complex systems. (i) The so called small-world effect. In particular, the average distance between two words, d (i.e. the average minimum number of links to be crossed from an arbitrary word to another), is shown to be d approximate to 2-3, even though the human brain can store many thousands. (ii) A scale-free distribution of degrees. The known pronounced effects of disconnecting the most connected vertices in such networks can be identified in some language disorders. These observations indicate some unexpected features of language organization that might reflect the evolutionary and social history of lexicons and the origins of their flexibility and combinatorial nature.} } @techreport{ferrer-i-cancho2003-SFI, author={R. {Ferrer-i-Cancho} and R. V. Sole and R. Kohler}, title={Universality in syntactic dependencies}, year={2003}, institution={Santa Fe Institute}, note={Santa Fe Working paper 03-06-042}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ferrericancho2003SFI.html}, keywords={complex networks, linguistic universals, small-world, syntax, scaling}, abstract={Many languages are spoken on Earth. Despite their diversity, many robust language universals are known to exist. All languages share syntax, i.e. the ability to combine words to form sentences. The origins of such a trait are an open debate. Most linguistic universals are defined in a way that strictly confines them to a linguistic context. This is not the case for the previously unreported potential syntactic universals presented here. By using recent developments from the statistical physics of complex networks, we show that different syntactic dependency networks (from Czech, German, and Romanian) share many non-trivial statistical patterns such as the small world phenomenon, scaling in the distribution of degrees, and disassortative mixing. Such previously unreported features of syntax organization are not a trivial consequence of the structure of sentences, but an emergent trait at the global scale. Our results strongly suggest that existent languages might belong to the same universality class as it is defined in physics.} } @inproceedings{ficici98coevolvingCommunicative, author={Sevan G. Ficici and Jordan B. Pollack}, title={Coevolving Communicative Behavior in a Linear Pursuer-Evader Game}, year={1998}, pages={263--269}, address={Cambridge, CA}, editor={Pfeifer, R. and Blumberg, B. and Meyer, J-A and Wilson, S.}, publisher={The MIT Press}, booktitle={SAB98}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ficici98coevolvingCommunicative.html} } @article{fisher06eloquentApe, author={Simon E. Fisher and Gary F. Marcus}, title={The eloquent ape: genes, brains and the evolution of language}, journal={Nature Reviews Genetics}, year={2006}, month={January}, volume={7}, pages={9-20}, doi={10.1038/nrg1747}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fisher06eloquentApe.html}, abstract={The human capacity to acquire complex language seems to be without parallel in the natural world. The origins of this remarkable trait have long resisted adequate explanation, but advances in fields that range from molecular genetics to cognitive neuroscience offer new promise. Here we synthesize recent developments in linguistics, psychology and neuroimaging with progress in comparative genomics, gene-expression profiling and studies of developmental disorders. We argue that language should be viewed not as a wholesale innovation, but as a complex reconfiguration of ancestral systems that have been adapted in evolutionarily novel ways.} } @article{fitch07viewsNATURE, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={Linguistics: an invisible hand}, journal={Nature}, year={2007}, month={Oct}, volume={449}, number={7163}, pages={665--667}, doi={10.1038/449665a}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch07viewsNATURE.html}, abstract={Quantitative relationships between how frequently a word is used and how rapidly it changes over time raise intriguing questions about the way individual behaviours determine large-scale linguistic and cultural change.} } @incollection{fitch05musicEvolution, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={The Evolution of Music in Comparative Perspective}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={1060}, pages={29-49}, editor={Giuliano Avanzini and Stefan Koelsch and Luisa Lopez and Maria Majno}, publisher={}, booktitle={The Neurosciences and Music II: From Perception to Performance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences}, doi={10.1196/annals.1360.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch05musicEvolution.html}, keywords={biomusicology, evolution of music, design features of music, comparative data, birdsong, whalesong, ape drumming, linguistics, communication}, abstract={In this paper, I briefly review some comparative data that provide an empirical basis for research on the evolution of music making in humans. First, a brief comparison of music and language leads to discussion of design features of music, suggesting a deep connection between the biology of music and language. I then selectively review data on animal ``music.'' Examining sound production in animals, we find examples of repeated convergent evolution or analogy (the evolution of vocal learning of complex songs in birds, whales, and seals). A fascinating but overlooked potential homology to instrumental music is provided by manual percussion in African apes. Such comparative behavioral data, combined with neuroscientific and developmental data, provide an important starting point for any hypothesis about how or why human music evolved. Regarding these functional and phylogenetic questions, I discuss some previously proposed functions of music, including Pinker's ``cheesecake'' hypothesis; Darwin's and others' sexual selection model; Dunbar's group ``grooming'' hypothesis; and Trehub's caregiving model. I conclude that only the last hypothesis receives strong support from currently available data. I end with a brief synopsis of Darwin's model of a songlike musical ``protolanguage,'' concluding that Darwin's model is consistent with much of the available evidence concerning the evolution of both music and language. There is a rich future for empirical investigations of the evolution of music, both in investigations of individual differences among humans, and in interspecific investigations of musical abilities in other animals, especially those of our ape cousins, about which we know little.} } @article{fitch05comparativeReview, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={The Evolution of Language: A Comparative Review}, journal={Biology and Philosophy}, year={2005}, month={March}, volume={20}, number={2-3}, pages={193-203}, doi={10.1007/s10539-005-5597-1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch05comparativeReview.html}, keywords={language, evolution, speech, syntax, semantics, vocal imitation, laryngeal descent, sexual selection, kin selection, theory of mind, homology, analogy, mirror neurons, FOXP2}, abstract={For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful “just so stories” about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the “descended larynx” of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language.} } @article{fitch05reviewOnBookByMithen, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={Dancing to Darwin's tune. Book review of 'The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body by Steve Mithen'}, journal={Nature}, year={2005}, month={November}, volume={438}, number={288}, doi={10.1038/438288a}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch05reviewOnBookByMithen.html} } @incollection{fitch04kinSelection, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={Kin Selection and ``Mother Tongues'': A Neglected Component in Language Evolution}, year={2004}, pages={275-296}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch04kinSelection.html} } @article{fitch02evolang, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={The evolution of language comes of age}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2002}, volume={6}, number={7}, pages={278-279}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(02)01925-3}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch02evolang.html}, keywords={linguistics; communication}, abstract={The Fourth International Conference on the Evolution of Language was held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, on 27–30 March 2002.} } @incollection{fitch02comparativeVocal, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={Comparative Vocal Production and the Evolution of Speech: Reinterpreting the Descent of the Larynx}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={2}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch02comparativeVocal.html} } @article{fitch00speech, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={The evolution of speech: a comparative review}, journal={Trends in cognitive sciences}, year={2000}, volume={4}, number={7}, pages={258-267}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch00speech.html}, abstract={The evolution of speech can be studied independently of the evolution of language, with the advantage that most aspects of speech acoustics, physiology and neural control are shared with animals, and thus open to empirical investigation. At least two changes were necessary prerequisites for modern human speech abilities: (1) modification of vocal tract morphology, and (2) development of vocal imitative ability. Despite an extensive literature, attempts to pinpoint the timing of these changes using fossil data have proven inconclusive. However, recent comparative data from nonhuman primates have shed light on the ancestral use of formants (a crucial cue in human speech) to identify individuals and gauge body size. Second, comparative analysis of the diverse vertebrates that have evolved vocal imitation (humans, cetaceans, seals and birds) provides several distinct, testable hypotheses about the adaptive function of vocal mimicry. These developments suggest that, for understanding the evolution of speech, comparative analysis of living species provides a viable alternative to fossil data. However, the neural basis for vocal mimicry and for mimesis in general remains unknown.} } @article{fitch05languageFaculty, author={W. Tecumseh Fitch and Marc D. Hauser and Noam Chomsky}, title={The evolution of the language faculty: Clarifications and implications}, journal={Cognition}, year={2005}, month={September}, volume={97}, number={2}, pages={179-210}, doi={10.1016/j.cognition.2005.02.005}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fitch05languageFaculty.html}, abstract={In this response to Pinker and Jackendoff's critique, we extend our previous framework for discussion of language evolution, clarifying certain distinctions and elaborating on a number of points. In the first half of the paper, we reiterate that profitable research into the biology and evolution of language requires fractionation of ``language'' into component mechanisms and interfaces, a non-trivial endeavor whose results are unlikely to map onto traditional disciplinary boundaries. Our terminological distinction between FLN and FLB is intended to help clarify misunderstandings and aid interdisciplinary rapprochement. By blurring this distinction, Pinker and Jackendoff mischaracterize our hypothesis 3 which concerns only FLN, not ``language'' as a whole. Many of their arguments and examples are thus irrelevant to this hypothesis. Their critique of the minimalist program is for the most part equally irrelevant, because very few of the arguments in our original paper were tied to this program; in an online appendix we detail the deep inaccuracies in their characterization of this program. Concerning evolution, we believe that Pinker and Jackendoff's emphasis on the past adaptive history of the language faculty is misplaced. Such questions are unlikely to be resolved empirically due to a lack of relevant data, and invite speculation rather than research. Preoccupation with the issue has retarded progress in the field by diverting research away from empirical questions, many of which can be addressed with comparative data. Moreover, offering an adaptive hypothesis as an alternative to our hypothesis concerning mechanisms is a logical error, as questions of function are independent of those concerning mechanism. The second half of our paper consists of a detailed response to the specific data discussed by Pinker and Jackendoff. Although many of their examples are irrelevant to our original paper and arguments, we find several areas of substantive disagreement that could be resolved by future empirical research. We conclude that progress in understanding the evolution of language will require much more empirical research, grounded in modern comparative biology, more interdisciplinary collaboration, and much less of the adaptive storytelling and phylogenetic speculation that has traditionally characterized the field.} } @inproceedings{fleischer04SAB, author={Jason Fleischer and Jonathan Shapiro}, title={Imitation Is Not Enough for Lexicon Learning}, year={2004}, pages={477-486}, booktitle={SAB04}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fleischer04SAB.html}, abstract={Lexicon learning systems need to be concerned with more than just producing symbol usage agreement between agents, which is easy to acquire through imitation. Lexicon learners should also explicitly attempt to increase the mutual information between their symbol usages (a measure of the usefulness of the symbols for transferring information between agents). This paper argues that, although many lexicon learning algorithms presented in the literature do attempt to create highly informative symbol usages implicitly, there are good reasons to make the mutual information of symbol usages an explicit goal of the lexicon learning system. Some first steps in this direction are provided in this paper. It presents lexicon learning experiments using both purely imitative and explicitly information maximizing algorithms. The results of these experiments are used to support the thesis of this paper, that lexicon learning algorithms should explicitly attempt to produce high mutual information symbol usages.} } @article{floreano07robotsCommunication, author={Dario Floreano and Sara Mitri and StĂ©phane Magnenat and Laurent Keller}, title={Evolutionary conditions for the emergence of communication in robots.}, journal={Curr Biol}, year={2007}, month={Mar}, volume={17}, number={6}, pages={514--519}, doi={10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.058}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/floreano07robotsCommunication.html}, keywords={Artificial Intelligence; Communication; Computer Simulation; Evolution; Robotics}, abstract={Information transfer plays a central role in the biology of most organisms, particularly social species [1, 2]. Although the neurophysiological processes by which signals are produced, conducted, perceived, and interpreted are well understood, the conditions conducive to the evolution of communication and the paths by which reliable systems of communication become established remain largely unknown. This is a particularly challenging problem because efficient communication requires tight coevolution between the signal emitted and the response elicited [3]. We conducted repeated trials of experimental evolution with robots that could produce visual signals to provide information on food location. We found that communication readily evolves when colonies consist of genetically similar individuals and when selection acts at the colony level. We identified several distinct communication systems that differed in their efficiency. Once a given system of communication was well established, it constrained the evolution of more efficient communication systems. Under individual selection, the ability to produce visual signals resulted in the evolution of deceptive communication strategies in colonies of unrelated robots and a concomitant decrease in colony performance. This study generates predictions about the evolutionary conditions conducive to the emergence of communication and provides guidelines for designing artificial evolutionary systems displaying spontaneous communication.} } @article{fogassi04mirrorNeurons, author={Leonardo Fogassi and Pier Francesco Ferrari}, title={Mirror neurons, gestures and language evolution}, journal={Interaction Studies}, year={2004}, volume={5}, number={3}, pages={345-363}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fogassi04mirrorNeurons.html}, keywords={Broca's area; gesture; language evolution; mirror neurons; monkey}, abstract={Different theories have been proposed for explaining the evolution of language. One of this maintains that gestural communication has been the precursor of human speech. Here we present a series of neurophysiological evidences that support this hypothesis. Communication by gestures, defined as the capacity to emit and recognize meaningful actions, may have originated in the monkey motor cortex from a neural system whose basic function was action understanding. This system is made by neurons of monkey’s area F5, named mirror neurons, activated by both execution and observation of goal-related actions. Recently, two new categories of mirror neurons have been described. Neurons of one category respond to the sound of an action, neurons of the other category respond to the observation of mouth ingestive and communicative actions. The properties of these neurons indicate that monkey's area F5 possesses the basic neural mechanisms for associating gestures and meaningful sounds as a pre-adaptation for the later emergence of articulated speech. The homology and the functional similarities between monkey area F5 and Broca’s area support this evolutionary scenario.} } @article{fontanari07compositionality, author={Jose Fernando Fontanari and Leonid I. Perlovsky}, title={Evolving compositionality in evolutionary language games}, journal={IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation}, year={2007}, month={December}, volume={11}, number={6}, pages={758-769}, doi={10.1109/TEVC.2007.892763}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fontanari07compositionality.html}, keywords={complexity theory; game theory; genetic algorithms; simulation}, abstract={Evolutionary language games have proved a useful tool to study the evolution of communication codes in communities of agents that interact among themselves by transmitting and interpreting a fixed repertoire of signals. Most studies have focused on the emergence of Saussurean codes (i.e., codes characterized by an arbitrary one-to-one correspondence between meanings and signals). In this contribution, we argue that the standard evolutionary language game framework cannot explain the emergence of compositional codes-communication codes that preserve neighborhood relationships by mapping similar signals into similar meanings-even though use of those codes would result in a much higher payoff in the case that signals are noisy. We introduce an alternative evolutionary setting in which the meanings are assimilated sequentially and show that the gradual building of the meaning-signal mapping leads to the emergence of mappings with the desired compositional property.} } @article{fontanari04wordFrequencyPRE, author={J.F. Fontanari and L.I. Perlovsky}, title={Solvable null model for the distribution of word frequencies}, journal={Physical Review E}, year={2004}, month={Oct}, volume={70}, number={4}, pages={042901}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fontanari04wordFrequencyPRE.html}, abstract={Zipf's law asserts that in all natural languages the frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its rank. The significance, if any, of this result for language remains a mystery. Here we examine a null hypothesis for the distribution of word frequencies, a so-called discourse-triggered word choice model, which is based on the assumption that the more a word is used, the more likely it is to be used again. We argue that this model is equivalent to the neutral infinite-alleles model of population genetics and so the degeneracy of the different words composing a sample of text is given by the celebrated Ewens sampling formula [

Theor. Pop. Biol. 3, 87 (1972)
], which we show to produce an exponential distribution of word frequencies.} } @incollection{forster06phylogeneticMethods, author={Peter Forster and Tobias Polzin and Arne Rohl}, title={Evolution of English Basic Vocabulary within the Network of Germanic Languages}, year={2006}, pages={131-}, chapter={11}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/forster06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @article{forster03phylogeneticChronology, author={Peter Forster and Alfred Toth}, title={Toward a phylogenetic chronology of ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-European}, journal={PNAS}, year={2003}, month={July}, volume={100}, number={15}, pages={9079-9084}, doi={10.1073/pnas.1331158100}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/forster03phylogeneticChronology.html}, abstract={Indo-European is the largest and best-documented language family in the world, yet the reconstruction of the Indo-European tree, first proposed in 1863, has remained controversial. Complications may include ascertainment bias when choosing the linguistic data, and disregard for the wave model of 1872 when attempting to reconstruct the tree. Essentially analogous problems were solved in evolutionary genetics by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic network methods, respectively. We now adapt these tools to linguistics, and analyze Indo-European language data, focusing on Celtic and in particular on the ancient Celtic language of Gaul (modern France), by using bilingual Gaulish-Latin inscriptions. Our phylogenetic network reveals an early split of Celtic within Indo-European. Interestingly, the next branching event separates Gaulish (Continental Celtic) from the British (Insular Celtic) languages, with Insular Celtic subsequently splitting into Brythonic (Welsh, Breton) and Goidelic (Irish and Scottish Gaelic). Taken together, the network thus suggests that the Celtic language arrived in the British Isles as a single wave (and then differentiated locally), rather than in the traditional two-wave scenario ('P-Celtic' to Britain and 'Q-Celtic' to Ireland). The phylogenetic network furthermore permits the estimation of time in analogy to genetics, and we obtain tentative dates for Indo-European at 8100 BC ± 1,900 years, and for the arrival of Celtic in Britain at 3200 BC ± 1,500 years. The phylogenetic method is easily executed by hand and promises to be an informative approach for many problems in historical linguistics.} } @inproceedings{foundalis02evolutionOf, author={Harry E. Foundalis}, title={Evolution of Gender in Indo-European Languages}, year={2002}, address={Fairfax, Virginia}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/foundalis02evolutionOf.html} } @incollection{franks05deception, author={Bradley Franks and Kate Rigby}, title={Deception and Mate Selection: Some implications for relevance and the evolution of language}, year={2005}, chapter={10}, editor={Maggie Tallerman}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/franks05deception.html} } @article{freedman96languagePolygenesis, author={David A. Freedman and William S-Y. Wang}, title={Language polygenesis: A probabilistic model}, journal={Anthropological Science}, year={1996}, volume={104}, pages={131-137}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/freedman96languagePolygenesis.html}, abstract={Monogenesis of language is widely accepted, but the conventional argument seems to be mistaken; a simple probabilistic model shows that polygenesis is likely. Other prehistoric inventions are discussed, as are problems in tracing linguistic lineages. Language is a system of representations; within such a system, words can evoke complex and systematic responses. Along with its social functions, language is important to humans as a mental instrument. Indeed, the invention of language,that is the accumulation of symbols to represent emotions, objects, and acts may be the most important event in human evolution, because so many developments follow from it. For example, Edward Sapir speculated that some embryonic form of language must have been available to early man to help him fashion tools from stone (Sapir,1921). Sophisticated biface stone tools date to early Homo erectus some 1.5 million years ago, suggesting a similar age for language. This paper considers whether the invention of language occurred at only one pre-historic site or at several sites. In other words, did language emerge by monogenesis or polygenesis? Early thinkers believed in monogenesis, against a background of divine creation. Perhaps the best known account is the biblical story of Adam giving names to plants and animals in the Garden of Eden. Similar legends are found among many peoples. Modern linguists too assume monogenesis, but on probabilistic grounds (see, for instance, Southworth and Daswani, 1974, p.314). The argument seems to be that the invention of language is an extremely unlikely event, because symbolization involves abstraction and requires synchronized insight by several individuals; therefore, the probability of occurrence at more than one site must be vanishingly small. We have found no explicit quantitative treatment of this question in the literature, but the underlying logic has to be the multiplication of probabilities. If p is small at one site,then p.p for two sites is smaller still, and so on. This reasoning is false, as we show here. The fallacy lies in the focus on two particular sites rather than consideration of all pairs of sites.} } @inproceedings{furnas06taggingSystems, author={George W. Furnas and Caterina Fake and Luis von Ahn and Joshua Schachter and Scott Golder and Kevin Fox and Marc Davis and Cameron Marlow and Mor Naaman}, title={Why do tagging systems work?}, year={2006}, pages={36--39}, address={New York, NY, USA}, publisher={ACM Press}, booktitle={CHI '06: CHI '06 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems}, doi={10.1145/1125451.1125462}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/furnas06taggingSystems.html}, keywords={tagging}, abstract={The panel will explore the relevance of the emerging tagging systems (Flickr, Del.icio.us, RawSugar and more). Why do they seem to work? What kinds of incentives are required for users to participate? Will tagging survive and scale to mass adoption? What are the behavioral, economic, and social models that underlie each tagging system? What are the dynamics of those systems, and how are they derived from the specific application's design and affordances? We will demand answers to these questions and others from some of the pioneering practitioners and academics in the field. Bring your wireless laptop to participate in a live tagging experiment! The experiment results will be shown and discussed at the end of the panel. To add to the fun, parts of the discussion will be motivated by short video segments.} } @inproceedings{fyfe97developingA, author={C. Fyfe and D. Livingstone}, title={Developing a Community Language}, year={1997}, month={July}, address={Brighton, UK}, booktitle={ECAL97}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fyfe97developingA.html} } @article{Galantucci05humanCommunication, author={Bruno Galantucci}, title={An Experimental Study of the Emergence of Human Communication Systems}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={2005}, volume={29}, number={5}, pages={737-767}, doi={10.1207/s15516709cog0000_34}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Galantucci05humanCommunication.html}, abstract={The emergence of human communication systems is typically investigated via 2 approaches with complementary strengths and weaknesses: naturalistic studies and computer simulations. This study was conducted with a method that combines these approaches. Pairs of participants played video games requiring communication. Members of a pair were physically separated but exchanged graphic signals through a medium that prevented the use of standard symbols (e.g., letters). Communication systems emerged and developed rapidly during the games, integrating the use of explicit signs with information implicitly available to players and silent behavior-coordinating procedures. The systems that emerged suggest 3 conclusions: (a) signs originate from different mappings; (b) sign systems develop parsimoniously; (c) sign forms are perceptually distinct, easy to produce, and tolerant to variations.} } @incollection{gardenfors04inbook, author={Peter Gardenfors}, title={Cooperation and the Evolution of Symbolic Communication}, year={2004}, pages={237-256}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gardenfors04inbook.html} } @incollection{grdenfors95languageAnd, author={Peter Gardenfors}, title={Language and the Evolution of Cognition}, year={1995}, publisher={}, booktitle={Lund University Cognitive Studies 41}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grdenfors95languageAnd.html} } @inproceedings{gardenfors06EELC, author={Peter Gardenfors and Massimo Warglien}, title={Cooperation, Conceptual Spaces and the Evolution of Semantics}, year={2006}, pages={16-30}, editor={P. Vogt and et al.}, booktitle={Symbol Grounding and Beyond: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, doi={10.1007/11880172_2}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gardenfors06EELC.html}, abstract={We start by providing an evolutionary scenario for the emergence of semantics. It is argued that the evolution of anticipatory cognition and theory of mind in the hominids opened up for cooperation about future goals. This cooperation requires symbolic communication. The meanings of the symbols are established via a “meeting of minds.” The concepts in the minds of communicating individuals are modelled as convex regions in conceptual spaces. We then outline a mathematical framework based on fixpoints in continuous mappings between conceptual spaces that can be used to model such a semantics.} } @incollection{garrett06phylogeneticMethods, author={Andrew Garrett}, title={Convergence in the Formation of Indo-European Subgroups: Phylogeny and Chronology}, year={2006}, pages={139-}, chapter={12}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/garrett06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @inproceedings{gasser93theStructure, author={M. Gasser}, title={The Structure-Grounding Problem}, year={1993}, address={NJ: Erlbaum}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gasser93theStructure.html} } @incollection{gellman05languageAndComplexity, author={Murray Gell-Mann}, title={Language and complexity}, year={2005}, month={July}, editor={James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang}, publisher={City University of Hong Kong Press}, booktitle={Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: Essays in Evolutionary Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gellman05languageAndComplexity.html} } @incollection{gell-mann92complexityAnd, author={Murray Gell-Mann}, title={Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gellmann92complexityAnd.html} } @article{gennari89modelsOf, author={J. H. Gennari and P. Langley and D. Fisher}, title={Models of incremental concept formation}, journal={Journal of Artificial Intelligence}, year={1989}, volume={40}, pages={11-61}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gennari89modelsOf.html} } @article{gentner06songbirds, author={Timothy Q. Gentner and Kimberly M. Fenn and Daniel Margoliash and Howard C. Nusbaum}, title={Recursive syntactic pattern learning by songbirds}, journal={Nature}, year={2006}, month={4}, volume={440}, pages={1204-1207}, doi={10.1038/nature04675}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gentner06songbirds.html}, abstract={Humans regularly produce new utterances that are understood by other members of the same language community. Linguistic theories account for this ability through the use of syntactic rules (or generative grammars) that describe the acceptable structure of utterances. The recursive, hierarchical embedding of language units (for example, words or phrases within shorter sentences) that is part of the ability to construct new utterances minimally requires a 'context-free' grammar that is more complex than the 'finite-state' grammars thought sufficient to specify the structure of all non-human communication signals. Recent hypotheses make the central claim that the capacity for syntactic recursion forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Here we show that European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar. They are also able to classify new patterns defined by the grammar and reliably exclude agrammatical patterns. Thus, the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, centre-embedded grammars is not uniquely human. This finding opens a new range of complex syntactic processing mechanisms to physiological investigation.} } @inproceedings{gershenson04iccs, author={C. Gershenson and F. Heylighen}, title={Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence}, year={2004}, booktitle={International Conference on Complex Systems ICCS2004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gershenson04iccs.html}, abstract={We discuss which properties common-use artifacts should have to collaborate without human intervention. We conceive how devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and home appliances, could be seamlessly integrated to provide an ``ambient intelligence'' that responds to the users desires without requiring explicit programming or commands. While the hardware and software technology to build such systems already exists, yet there is no protocol to direct and give meaning to their interactions. We propose the first steps in the development of such a protocol, which would need to be adaptive, extensible, and open to the community, while promoting self-organization. We argue that devices, interacting through ``game-like'' moves, can learn to agree about how to communicate, with whom to cooperate, and how to delegate and coordinate specialized tasks. Like this, they may evolve distributed cognition or collective intelligence able to tackle any complex of tasks.} } @article{ghazanfar08neuralDifference, author={Asif A. Ghazanfar}, title={Language evolution: neural differences that make a difference}, journal={Nature Neuroscience}, year={2008}, volume={11}, number={4}, pages={382-384}, doi={10.1038/nn0408-382}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ghazanfar08neuralDifference.html}, abstract={Language is unique to humans, but did it evolve gradually or suddenly, from a chance mutation or as a consequence of a larger brain? Two studies now suggest that language may have arisen gradually from precursors in other primates.} } @incollection{gibson99multipleNeurological, author={Kathleen R. Gibson and Stephen Jessee}, title={Language Evolution and Expansions of Multiple Neurological Processing Areas}, year={1999}, chapter={6}, editor={Barbara J. King}, publisher={School of American Research Press}, booktitle={The Origins of Language: What Nonhuman Primates Can Tell Us}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gibson99multipleNeurological.html} } @inproceedings{gil06evolang, author={David Gil}, title={Early human language was isolating-monocategorial-associational}, year={2006}, pages={91-98}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gil06evolang.html}, abstract={Isolating-Monocategorial-Associational (IMA) Language is language with the following three properties: (a) morphologically isolating, without word-internal morphological structure; (b) syntactically monocategorial, without distinct syntactic categories; and (c) semantically associational, without distinct construction-specific semantic rules, compositional semantics relying instead on the association operator, which says that the meaning of a composite expression is associated with the meanings of its constituents in an underspecified fashion. IMA Language is present in the following five domains: (a) phylogeny: at some stage in evolution, early language was IMA Language; (b) ontogeny: at some stage in acquisition, early child language is IMA Language; (c) semiotics: some artificial languages are IMA Language; (d) typology: some languages are closer than others to IMA Language; and (e) cognition: IMA Language is a feature of general human cognition. This paper presents arguments pertaining to the first of these domains, namely phylogeny, citing evidence from the linguistic behaviour of captive apes which points towards the conclusion that early human language was IMA Language.} } @incollection{givn99generativityAnd, author={Tom Givón}, title={Generativity and Variation: The Notion 'Rule of Grammar' Revisited}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/givn99generativityAnd.html} } @article{givn98onThe, author={Tom Givón}, title={On the Co-evolution of Language, Mind and Brain}, journal={Evolution of Communication}, year={1998}, month={March}, volume={2}, number={1}, pages={45-116}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/givn98onThe.html} } @inproceedings{gmytrasiewicz02negotiationAs, author={Piotr J. Gmytrasiewicz}, title={Negotiation as a Mechanism for Language Evolution}, year={2002}, address={Bologna, Italy}, booktitle={Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gmytrasiewicz02negotiationAs.html} } @inproceedings{gmytrasiewicz00towardsAutomating, author={Piotr J. Gmytrasiewicz and Dhruva Gopal}, title={Towards Automating the Evolution of Linguistic Competence in Artificial Agents}, year={2000}, address={Barcelona, Spain}, booktitle={Agents'2000: Workshop on Agent Communication Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gmytrasiewicz00towardsAutomating.html} } @article{gmytrasiewicz00theEmergence, author={Piotr J. Gmytrasiewicz and Michael N. Huhns}, title={The Emergence of Language Among Autonomous Agents}, journal={IEEE Internet Computing}, year={2000}, volume={4}, number={4}, pages={90-92}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gmytrasiewicz00theEmergence.html} } @inproceedings{gmytrasiewicz02towardAutomated, author={Piotr J. Gmytrasiewicz and Matthew Summers and Dhruva Gopal}, title={Toward Automated Evolution of Agent Communication Languages}, year={2002}, month={January}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-35}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gmytrasiewicz02towardAutomated.html} } @article{gold67limit, author={E. Mark Gold}, title={Language identification in the limit}, journal={Information and Control}, year={1967}, volume={10}, number={5}, pages={447-474}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gold67limit.html}, abstract={Language learnability has been investigated. This refers to the following situation: A class of possible languages is specified, together with a method of presenting information to the learner about an unknown language, which is to be chosen from the class. The question is now asked, ``Is the information sufficient to determine which of the possible languages is the unknown language?'' Many definitions of learnability are possible, but only the following is considered here: Time is quantized and has a finite starting time. At each time the learner receives a unit of information and is to make a guess as to the identity of the unknown language on the basis of the information received so far. This process continues forever. The class of languages will be considered learnable with respect to the specified method of information presentation if there is an algorithm that the learner can use to make his guesses, the algorithm having the following property: Given any language of the class, there is some finite time after which the guesses will all be the same and they will be correct.

In this preliminary investigation, a language is taken to be a set of strings on some finite alphabet. The alphabet, is the same for all languages of the class. Several variations of each of the following two basic methods of information presentation are investigated: A text for a language generates the strings of the language in any order such that every string of the language occurs at. least once. An informant for a language tells whether a string is in the language, and chooses the strings in some order such that every string occurs at least once. It was found that the class of context-sensitive languages is learnable from an informant, but that, not even the class of regular languages is learnable from a text.} } @article{goldberg03constructions, author={Adele E. Goldberg}, title={Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2003}, month={May}, volume={7}, number={5}, pages={219-224}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00080-9}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldberg03constructions.html}, abstract={A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10-15 years that allows linguistic observations about form-meaning pairings, known as 'constructions', to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged 'core'. Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.} } @incollection{goldberg99theEmergence, author={Adele E. Goldberg}, title={The Emergence of the Semantics of Argument Structure Constructions}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldberg99theEmergence.html} } @book{goldberg95constructionsA, author={A. E. Goldberg}, title={Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure}, year={1995}, address={Chicago}, publisher={University of Chicago Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldberg95constructionsA.html} } @article{golder05taggingSystems, author={Scott Golder and Bernardo A. Huberman}, title={Usage patterns of collaborative tagging systems}, journal={Journal of Information Science}, year={2006}, month={April}, volume={32}, number={2}, pages={198--208}, doi={10.1177/0165551506062337}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/golder05taggingSystems.html}, abstract={Collaborative tagging describes the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content. Recently, collaborative tagging has grown in popularity on the web, on sites that allow users to tag bookmarks, photographs and other content. In this paper we analyze the structure of collaborative tagging systems as well as their dynamical aspects. Specifically, we discovered regularities in user activity, tag frequencies, kinds of tags used, bursts of popularity in bookmarking and a remarkable stability in the relative proportions of tags within a given url. We also present a dynamical model of collaborative tagging that predicts these stable patterns and relates them to imitation and shared knowledge.} } @article{goldinmeadow05watchingLanguageGrow, author={Susan Goldin-Meadow}, title={Watching language grow}, journal={PNAS}, year={2005}, month={February}, volume={102}, number={7}, pages={2271-2272}, doi={10.1073/pnas.0500166102}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldinmeadow05watchingLanguageGrow.html} } @article{goldinmeadow98spontaneousSignSystems, author={Susan Goldin-Meadow and Carolyn Mylander}, title={Spontaneous sign systems created by deaf children in two cultures}, journal={Nature}, year={1998}, month={1}, volume={391}, number={6664}, pages={279-281}, doi={10.1038/34646}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldinmeadow98spontaneousSignSystems.html}, abstract={Deaf children whose access to usable conventional linguistic input, signed or spoken, is severely limited nevertheless use gesture to communicate. These gestures resemble natural language in that they are structured at the level both of sentence and of word. Although the inclination to use gesture may be traceable to the fact that the deaf children's hearing parents, like all speakers, gesture as they talk, the children themselves are responsible for introducing language-like structure into their gestures. We have explored the robustness of this phenomenon by observing deaf children of hearing parents in two cultures, an American and a Chinese culture, that differ in their child-rearing practices and in the way gesture is used in relation to speech. The spontaneous sign systems developed in these cultures shared a number of structural similarities: patterned production and deletion of semantic elements in the surface structure of a sentence; patterned ordering of those elements within the sentence; and concatenation of propositions within a sentence. These striking similarities offer critical empirical input towards resolving the ongoing debate about the 'innateness' of language in human infants.} } @article{goldman07learningToCommunicate, author={Claudia V. Goldman and Martin Allen and Shlomo Zilberstein}, title={Learning to communicate in a decentralized environment}, journal={Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}, year={2007}, month={August}, volume={15}, number={1}, pages={47-90}, doi={10.1007/s10458-006-0008-9}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldman07learningToCommunicate.html}, abstract={Abstract Learning to communicate is an emerging challenge in AI research. It is known that agents interacting in decentralized, stochastic environments can benefit from exchanging information. Multi-agent planning generally assumes that agents share a common means of communication; however, in building robust distributed systems it is important to address potential miscoordination resulting from misinterpretation of messages exchanged. This paper lays foundations for studying this problem, examining its properties analytically and empirically in a decision-theoretic context. We establish a formal framework for the problem, and identify a collection of necessary and sufficient properties for decision problems that allow agents to employ probabilistic updating schemes in order to learn how to interpret what others are communicating. Solving the problem optimally is often intractable, but our approach enables agents using different languages to converge upon coordination over time. Our experimental work establishes how these methods perform when applied to problems of varying complexity.} } @inproceedings{goldman04aamas, author={Claudia V. Goldman and Martin Allen and Shlomo Zilberstein}, title={Decentralized Language Learning Through Acting}, year={2004}, pages={1006-1013}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Third International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/goldman04aamas.html}, abstract={This paper presents an algorithm for learning the meaning of messages communicated between agents that interact while acting optimally towards a cooperative goal. Our reinforcement-learning method is based on Bayesian filtering and has been adapted for a decentralized control process. Empirical results shed light on the complexity of the learning problem, and on factors affecting the speed of convergence. Designing intelligent agents able to adapt their mutual interpretation of messages exchanged, in order to improve overall task-oriented performance, introduces an essential cognitive capability that can upgrade the current state of the art in multi-agent and human-machine systems to the next level. Learning to communicate while acting will add to the robustness and flexibility of these systems and hence to a more efficient and productive performance.} } @incollection{golinkoff99emergentCues, author={R. M. Golinkoff and K. Hirsh-Pasek and G. Hollich}, title={Emergent Cues for Early Word Learning.}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/golinkoff99emergentCues.html} } @article{gomes99diversityScaling, author={M. A. F. Gomes and G. L. Vasconcelos and I. J. Tsang and I. R. Tsang}, title={Scaling relations for diversity of languages}, journal={Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications}, year={1999}, month={September}, volume={271}, number={3-4}, pages={489-495}, doi={10.1016/S0378-4371(99)00249-6}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gomes99diversityScaling.html}, keywords={Diversity; Languages; Fragmentation; Fractals}, abstract={The distribution of living languages is investigated and scaling relations are found for the diversity of languages as a function of the country area and population. These results are compared with data from Ecology and from computer simulations of fragmentation dynamics where similar scalings appear. The language size distribution is also studied and shown to display two scaling regions: (i) one for the largest (in population) languages and (ii) another one for intermediate-size languages. It is then argued that these two classes of languages may have distinct growth dynamics, being distributed on the sets of different fractal dimensions.} } @inproceedings{gong04alife, author={Tao Gong and Jinyun Ke and James W. Minett and William S-Y. Wang}, title={A computational framework to simulate the co-evolution of language and social structure}, year={2004}, address={Boston, MA, U.S.A.}, booktitle={Artificial Life IX}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong04alife.html}, abstract={In this paper, a multi-agent computational model is proposed to simulate the coevolution of social structure and compositional protolanguage from a holistic signaling system through iterative interactions within a heterogeneous population. We implement an indirect meaning transference based on both linguistic and nonlinguistic information in communications, together with a feedback without direct meaning check. The emergent social structure, triggered by two locally selective strategies, friendship and popularity, has small-world characteristics. The influence of these selective strategies on the emergent language and the emergent social structure are discussed.} } @article{gong04coevolution, author={Tao Gong and James W. Minett and Jinyun Ke and John H. Holland and William S-Y. Wang}, title={Coevolution of lexicon and syntax from a simulation perspective}, journal={Complexity}, year={2005}, month={August}, volume={10}, number={6}, pages={50-62}, doi={10.1002/cplx.20093}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong04coevolution.html}, keywords={language emergence,multiagent, coevolution, indirect meaning transference}, abstract={Whether simple syntax (in the form of simple word order) can emerge during the emergence of lexicon is studied from a simulation perspective; a multiagent computational model is adopted to trace a lexicon-syntax coevolution through iterative communications. Several factors that may affect this self-organizing process are discussed. An indirect meaning transference is simulated to study the effect of nonlinguistic information in listener's comprehension. Besides the theoretical and empirical argumentations, this computational model, following the Emergentism, demonstrates an adaptation of syntax from some domain-general abilities, which provides an argumentation against the Innatism.} } @inproceedings{gong07culturalTransmission, author={T. Gong and J. W. Minett and W. S-Y. Wang}, title={A Simulative Study of the Roles of Cultural Transmission in Language Evolution}, year={2007}, pages={843-850}, address={Singapore}, booktitle={Proceedings of 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong07culturalTransmission.html}, abstract={A multi-agent computational model is proposed to simulate language evolution in an acquisition framework. This framework involves many major forms of cultural transmission, and the simulation results of the model systematically examine the role of cultural transmission in language emergence and maintenance. In addition, this study discusses the effects of conventionalization during horizontal transmission on diffusing linguistic innovations, maintaining high levels of linguistic understandability, and triggering inevitable changes in the communal languages across generations. All these reflect that conventionalization could be a self-organizing property of the human communication system that drives language evolution.} } @inproceedings{gong06languageOrigin, author={T. Gong and J. W. Minett and W. S-Y. Wang}, title={Language origin and the effects of individuals' popularity}, year={2006}, pages={3744-3751}, address={Vancouver, CA}, booktitle={Proceedings of 2006 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong06languageOrigin.html}, abstract={The emergence of a compositional language with a simple grammar and the effects of individualsâ™ popularity on the phylogeny of language are studied based on a multi-agent computational model. In this model, a bottom-up syntactic development is traced, in which the global syntax in sentences is gradually formed from local sequential information. Assuming that the popularity of individuals follows a power-law distribution, we demonstrate that a common language can emerge efficiently only for certain power-law distributions and that these distributions could also be formed as a result of the language phylogeny.} } @inproceedings{gong06CompositionalityRegularity, author={Tao Gong and James W. Minett and William S-Y. Wang}, title={Computational simulation on the co-evolution of compositionality and regularity}, year={2006}, pages={99-106}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong06CompositionalityRegularity.html}, abstract={Compositionality and regularity are universals in human languages; in most languages, complex expressions are determined by their structures and their components’ meanings. Based on a multi-agent computational model, the coevolution of compositionality and one type of regularity, word order, is traced during the emergence of compositional language out of holistic signals. The model modifies some questionable aspects in the Iterated Learning Model and Fluid Construction Grammar by considering the conventionalization in horizontal transmission and the gradual formation of syntactic categories which mirror the semantic categories. The model also implements a bottom-up syntactic developmental process, i.e., the global orders for regulating multiple arguments are gradually formed from simple local orders between two categories.} } @inproceedings{gong05culturalDissemination, author={T. Gong and J. W. Minett and W. S-Y. Wang}, title={Computational exploration on language emergence and cultural dissemination}, year={2005}, pages={1629-1636}, address={Edinburgh, UK}, booktitle={Proceedings of 2005 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation}, doi={10.1109/CEC.2005.1554884}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong05culturalDissemination.html}, abstract={Evolutionary computation is used to explore the emergence of language, focusing particularly on the intrinsic relationship between the lexicon and syntax, and the exogenous relationship between language use and cultural development. A multi-agent model traces a coevolution of the lexicon and syntax, and demonstrates that linguistic and some distance constraint on communications can trigger and maintain cultural heterogeneity. This model also traces an optimization process using evolutionary mechanisms based on local information. Certain mechanisms in this model, such as recurrent pattern extraction, strength-based competition and indirect feedback, can be generalized to study robot learning, optimization and other evolutionary phenomena.} } @article{gong05coevolutionModel, author={T. Gong and W. S-Y. Wang}, title={Computational modeling on language emergence: A coevolution model of lexicon, syntax and social structure}, journal={Language and Linguistics}, year={2005}, volume={6}, number={1}, pages={1-41}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong05coevolutionModel.html}, keywords={language emergence (phylogenetic), computational modeling, coevolution (lexicon & syntax), coevolution (language & social structure)}, abstract={In this paper, after a brief review of current computational models on language emergence, a multi-agent model is introduced to simulate the emergence of a compositional language from a holistic signaling system, through iterative interactions among heterogeneous agents. A coevolution of lexicon and syntax (in the form of simple word order) is tracked during communications with indirect meaning transference, in which the listener’s comprehension is based on interactions of linguistic and nonlinguistic information, and the feedback is not a direct meaning check. In this model, homonymous and synonymous rules emerge inevitably, and a sufficiently developed communication system is available only when a homonym-avoidance mechanism is adopted. In addition, certain degrees of heterogeneity regarding agent’s natural characteristics and linguistic behaviors do not significantly affect language emergence. Finally, based on theories of complex networks, a preliminary study of social structure’s influence on language emergence is given, and a coevolution of the emergence of language and that of simple social structure is implemented.} } @incollection{gontier06EELCsymbiogenesis, author={Nathalie Gontier}, title={Evolutionary Epistemology and the origin and evolution of language - taking symbiogenesis seriously}, year={2006}, pages={195-226}, editor={Gontier, Nathalie and van Bendegem, Jean Paul and Aerts, Diederik}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture - A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gontier06EELCsymbiogenesis.html} } @inproceedings{gontier06EpistemologicalInquiry, author={Nathalie Gontier}, title={An Epistemological Inquiry into the 'What is Language' Question and the 'What Did Language Evolve For' Question}, year={2006}, pages={107-114}, editor={Cangelosi, A. and Smith, A.D.M. and Smith, K.}, publisher={London: World Scientific}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gontier06EpistemologicalInquiry.html}, abstract={Although Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch (HCF/FHC) and Pinker and Jackendoff (PJ/JP) differ in the epistemic questions they ask concerning, respectively, the nature of language (what language is), and the evolution of language (what language evolved for), it will be argued that both questions are part of the same methodological framework. This framework resembles the classical manner in which scientific knowledge is to be obtained while newer epistemological methods are suggested that can complement the study of the characteristics of language and evolutionary transitions that led to language.} } @incollection{gontier06EELCIntroduction, author={Nathalie Gontier}, title={Introduction to evolutionary epistemology, language and culture}, year={2006}, pages={1-29}, editor={Gontier, Nathalie and van Bendegem, Jean Paul and Aerts, Diederik}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture - A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gontier06EELCIntroduction.html} } @book{gontier06EELCbook, title={Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture - A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach}, year={2006}, address={Dordrecht}, editor={Gontier, Nathalie and van Bendegem, Jean Paul and Aerts, Diederik}, series={Theory and Decision Library A, 39}, publisher={Springer}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gontier06EELCbook.html} } @article{gostoli08lexiconEmergence, author={Umberto Gostoli}, title={A Cognitively Founded Model of the Social Emergence of Lexicon}, journal={Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation}, year={2008}, volume={11}, number={1}, pages={2-}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gostoli08lexiconEmergence.html}, keywords={Social Conventions, Fast and Frugal Heuristic Theory, Emergence of Lexicon, Data Mining, Signaling Games}, abstract={This paper suggests a model of the process through which a set of symbols, initially without any intrinsic meaning, acquires endogenously a conventional and socially shared meaning. This model has two related aspects. The first is the cognitive aspect, represented by the process through which each agent processes the information gathered during the interactions with other agents. In this paper, the agents are endowed with the cognitive skills necessary to categorize the input in a lexicographic way, a categorization process that is implemented by the means of data mining techniques. The second aspect is the social one, represented by the process of reiterate interactions among the agents who compose a population. The framework of this social process is that of evolutionary game theory, with a population of agents who are randomly matched in each period in order to play a game that, in this paper, is a kind of signaling game. The simulations show that the emergence of a socially shared meaning associated to a combination of symbols is, under the assumptions of this model, a statistically inevitable occurrence.} } @article{gostoli07cognitiveLexicon, author={Umberto Gostoli}, title={A Cognitively Founded Model of the Social Emergence of Lexicon}, journal={Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation}, year={2007}, volume={11}, number={1}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gostoli07cognitiveLexicon.html}, keywords={Social Conventions, Fast and Frugal Heuristic Theory, Emergence of Lexicon, Data Mining, Signaling Games}, abstract={This paper suggests a model of the process through which a set of symbols, initially without any intrinsic meaning, acquires endogenously a conventional and socially shared meaning. This model has two related aspects. The first is the cognitive aspect, represented by the process through which each agent processes the information gathered during the interactions with other agents. In this paper, the agents are endowed with the cognitive skills necessary to categorize the input in a lexicographic way, a categorization process that is implemented by the means of data mining techniques. The second aspect is the social one, represented by the process of reiterate interactions among the agents who compose a population. The framework of this social process is that of evolutionary game theory, with a population of agents who are randomly matched in each period in order to play a game that, in this paper, is a kind of signaling game. The simulations show that the emergence of a socially shared meaning associated to a combination of symbols is, under the assumptions of this model, a statistically inevitable occurrence.} } @article{grafen93whyESSsignalling, author={A. Grafen and R.A. Johnstone}, title={Why we need ESS signalling theory}, journal={Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences}, year={1993}, month={May}, volume={340}, number={1292}, pages={245-250}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grafen93whyESSsignalling.html}, abstract={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.} } @article{grassly00jtb, author={N. C. Grassly and A. von Haeseler and David Krakauer}, title={Error, Population Structure and the Origin of Diverse Sign Systems}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={2000}, volume={206}, number={3}, pages={369-378}, doi={10.1006/jtbi.2000.2133}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grassly00jtb.html}, abstract={Evolutionary models of communication are used to shed some light on the selective pressures involved in the evolution of simple referential signals, and the constraints hindering the emergence of signs. Error-prone communication results from errors in transmission (in which individuals learn the wrong associations) and communication (in which signs are mistaken for one another). We demonstrate how both classes of errors are required to generate diversity and subsequently impose limits on the sign repertoire within a population. We then explore the influence of geographic structuring of a population on the evolution of a shared sign system and the importance of such structure for the maintenance of sign diversity. Deceit tends to erode conventional signs systems thereby reducing signal diversity, we demonstrate that population structure can act as a hedge against deceit, thereby ensuring the persistence of sign systems.} } @article{gray05languageRootsSCIENCE, author={Russell D. Gray}, title={Pushing the Time Barrier in the Quest for Language Roots}, journal={Science}, year={2005}, month={September}, volume={309}, number={5743}, pages={2007-2008}, doi={10.1126/science.1119276}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gray05languageRootsSCIENCE.html}, abstract={The challenge of tracing the history of the world's languages faces a serious problem--words change far too rapidly to reveal deep historical links. In his Perspective, Gray discusses language analyses by Dunn et al. in which a database of structural linguistic features was created and computational methods derived from evolutionary biology were applied. The approach offers new hope for uncovering these ancient connections.} } @article{gray03languageTreeDivergence, author={Russell D. Gray and Quentin D. Atkinson}, title={Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin}, journal={Nature}, year={2003}, month={November}, volume={426}, number={6965}, pages={435-439}, doi={10.1038/nature02029}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gray03languageTreeDivergence.html}, keywords={Linguistics; Genetic engineering; Computational methods; Agriculture; Forestry; Kurgan theory}, abstract={Languages, like genes, provide vital clues about human history. The origin of the Indo-European language family is ``the most intensively studied, yet still most recalcitrant, problem of historical linguistics''. Numerous genetic studies of Indo-European origins have also produced inconclusive results. Here we analyse linguistic data using computational methods derived from evolutionary biology. We test two theories of Indo-European origin: the 'Kurgan expansion' and the 'Anatolian farming' hypotheses. The Kurgan theory centres on possible archaeological evidence for an expansion into Europe and the Near East by Kurgan horsemen beginning in the sixth millennium BP. In contrast, the Anatolian theory claims that Indo-European languages expanded with the spread of agriculture from Anatolia around 8,000-9,500 years BP. In striking agreement with the Anatolian hypothesis, our analysis of a matrix of 87 languages with 2,449 lexical items produced an estimated age range for the initial Indo-European divergence of between 7,800 and 9,800 years BP. These results were robust to changes in coding procedures, calibration points, rooting of the trees and priors in the bayesian analysis.} } @article{greco99languageAnd, author={A. Greco and A. Cangelosi}, title={Language and the acquisition of implicit and explicit knowledge: a pilot study using neural networks}, journal={Cognitive Systems}, year={1999}, volume={5}, number={2}, pages={148-165}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/greco99languageAnd.html} } @unpublished{greco03icann, author={Alberto Greco and Thomas Riga and Angelo Cangelosi}, title={The acquisition of new categories through grounded symbols: An extended connectionist model}, year={2003}, note={submitted to Joint ICANN/ICONIP 2003 Conference, Turkey, June 2003}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/greco03icann.html} } @incollection{greenberg92preliminariesTo, author={Joseph H. Greenberg}, title={Preliminaries to a Systematic Comparison Between Biological and Linguistic Evoltuion}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, series={SFI Studies in the Sciences of Complexity}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/greenberg92preliminariesTo.html} } @article{greenfield91BBS, author={Patricia M. Greenfield}, title={Language, tools, and brain: The ontogeny and phylogeny of hierarchically organized sequential behavior}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1991}, volume={14}, number={4}, pages={531-551}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/greenfield91BBS.html} } @inproceedings{Griffiths06iteratedLearning, author={Thomas L. Griffiths and Brian R. Christian and Michael L. Kalish}, title={Revealing priors on category structures through iterated learning}, year={2006}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Griffiths06iteratedLearning.html}, abstract={We present a novel experimental method for identifying the inductive biases of human learners. The key idea behind this method is simple: we use participants’ re- sponses on one trial to generate the stimuli they see on the next. A theoretical analysis of this “iterated learn- ing” procedure, based on the assumption that learners are Bayesian agents, predicts that it should reveal the inductive biases of the learners, as expressed in a prior probability distribution. We test this prediction through two experiments in iterated category learning.} } @article{griffiths07iteratedLearning, author={Thomas L. Griffiths and Michael L. Kalish}, title={Language evolution by iterated learning with Bayesian agents}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={2007}, volume={31}, number={3}, pages={441-480}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/griffiths07iteratedLearning.html}, abstract={Languages are transmitted from person to person and generation to generation via a process of iterated learning: people learn a language from other people who once learned that language themselves. We analyze the consequences of iterated learning for learning algorithms based on the principles of Bayesian inference, assuming that learners compute a posterior distribution over languages by combining a prior (representing their inductive biases) with the evidence provided by linguistic data. We show that when learners sample languages from this posterior distribution, iterated learning converges to a distribution over languages that is determined entirely by the prior. Under these conditions, iterated learning is a form of Gibbs sampling, a widely-used Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The consequences of iterated learning are more complicated when learners choose the language with maximum posterior probability, being affected by both the prior of the learners and the amount of information transmitted between generations. We show that in this case, iterated learning corresponds to another statistical inference algorithm, a variant of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. These results clarify the role of iterated learning in explanations of linguistic universals and provide a formal connection between constraints on language acquisition and the languages that come to be spoken, suggesting that information transmitted via iterated learning will ultimately come to mirror the minds of the learners.} } @inproceedings{Griffiths05BayesianView, author={Thomas L. Griffiths and Michael L. Kalish}, title={A Bayesian view of language evolution by iterated learning}, year={2005}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Griffiths05BayesianView.html}, abstract={Models of language evolution have demonstrated how aspects of human language, such as compositionality, can arise in populations of interacting agents. This paper analyzes how languages change as the result of a particular form of interaction: agents learning from one another. We show that, when the learners are rational Bayesian agents, this process of iterated learning converges to the prior distribution over languages assumed by those learners. The rate of convergence is set by the amount of information conveyed by the data seen by each generation; the less informative the data, the faster the process converges to the prior.} } @article{grim01learningTo, author={Patrick Grim and Paul St. Denis and Trina Kokalis}, title={Learning to communicate: The emergence of signaling in spatialized arrays of neural nets}, journal={Adaptive Behavior}, year={2002}, volume={10}, number={1}, pages={45-70}, doi={10.1177/10597123020101003}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grim01learningTo.html}, keywords={communication; neural nets; learning; evolution; spatialization; philosophy of language}, abstract={We work with a large spatialized array of individuals in an environment of drifting food sources and predators. The behavior of each individual is generated by its simple neural net; individuals arecapable of making one of two sounds and are capable of responding to sounds from their immediate neighbors by opening their mouths or hiding. An individual whose mouth is open in the presence of food is 'fed' and gains points; an individual who fails to hide when a predator is present is 'hurt' by losing points. Opening mouths, hiding, and making sounds each exact an energy cost. There is no direct evolutionary gain for acts of cooperation or 'successful communication' per se.

In such an environment we start with a spatialized array of neural nets with randomized weights. Using standard learning algorithms, our individuals 'train up' on the behavior of successful neighbors at regular intervals. Given that simple setup, will a community of neural nets evolve a simple language for signaling the presence of food and predators? With important qualifications, the answer is yes.'In a simple spatial environment, pursuing individualistic gains and using partial training on successful neighbors, randomized neural nets can learn to communicate.} } @techreport{grim00evolutionOf, author={Patrick Grim and Trina Kokalis and Ali Tafti and Nicholas Kilb}, title={Evolution of Communication with a Spatialized Genetic Algorithm}, year={2000}, institution={Department of Philosophy, SUNY at Stony Brooks}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grim00evolutionOf.html}, keywords={communication, evolution, spatialization, genetic algorithm, philosophy of language}, abstract={We extend previous work by modeling evolution of communication using a spatialized genetic algorithm which recombines strategies purely locally. Here cellular automata are used as a spatialized environment in which individuals gain points by capturing drifting food items and are 'harmed' if they fail to hide from migrating predators. Our individuals are capable of making one of two arbitrary sounds, heard only locally by their immediate neighbors. They can respond to sounds from their neighbors by opening their mouths or by hiding. By opening their mouths in the presence of food they maximize gains; by hiding when a predator is present they minimize losses. We consider the result a 'natural' template for benefits from communication; unlike a range of other studies, it is here only the recipient of communicated information that immediately benefits. A community of 'perfect communicators' could be expected to make a particular sound when successfully feeding, responding to that same sound from their neighbors by opening their mouths. They could be expected to make a different sound when 'hurt' and respond to that second sound from their neighbors by hiding. Suppose one starts from a small set of 'Adam and Eve' strategies randomized across a cellular automata array, and uses a genetic algorithm which operates purely locally by cross-breeding strategies with their most successful neighbors. Can one, in such an environment, expect evolution of local communities of 'perfect communicators'? With some important qualifications, the answer is 'yes'.} } @techreport{grim99evolutionOf, author={Patrick Grim and Trina Kokalis and Ali Tafti and Nicholas Kilb}, title={Evolution of Communication in Perfect and Imperfect Worlds}, year={1999}, institution={Department of Philosophy, SUNY at Stony Brooks}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grim99evolutionOf.html}, keywords={communication, computer modeling, stochastic, imperfection, evolution, cooperation}, abstract={We extend previous work on cooperation to some related questions regarding the evolution of simple forms of communication. The evolution of cooperation within the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma has been shown to follow different patterns, with significantly different outcomes, depending on whether the features of the model are classically perfect or stochastically imperfect (Axelrod 1980a, 1980b, 1984, 1985; Axelrod and Hamilton, 1981; Nowak and Sigmund, 1990, 1992; Sigmund 1993). Our results here show that the same holds for communication. Within a simple model, the evolution of communication seems to require a stochastically imperfect world.} } @article{grim06importanceOfSpatialization, author={Patrick Grim and Stephanie Wardach and Vincent Beltrani}, title={Location, location, location: The importance of spatialization in modeling cooperation and communication}, journal={Interaction Studies}, year={2006}, volume={7}, number={1}, pages={43-78}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grim06importanceOfSpatialization.html}, keywords={altruism; cooperation; evolution of communication; spatialization}, abstract={Most current modeling for evolution of communication still underplays or ignores the role of local action in spatialized environments: the fact that it is immediate neighbors with which one tends to communicate, and from whom one learns strategies or conventions of communication. Only now are the lessons of spatialization being learned in a related field: game-theoretic models for cooperation. In work on altruism, on the other hand, the role of spatial organization has long been recognized under the term `viscosity'.
Here we offer some simple simulations that dramatize the importance of spatialization for studies of both cooperation and communication, in each case contrasting (a) a model dynamics in which strategy change proceeds globally, and (b) a spatialized model dynamics in which interaction and strategy change both operate purely locally. Local action in a spatialized model clearly favors the emergence of cooperation. In the case of communication, spatialized models allow communication to arise and flourish where the global dynamics more typical in the literature make it impossible.
Simulations make a dramatic case for spatialized modeling, but analysis proves difficult. In a final section we outline some of the surprises of spatial dynamics but also some of the complexity facing attempts at deeper analysis.} } @inproceedings{grudin91languageEvolution, author={Jonathan Grudin and Donald A. Norman}, title={Language Evolution and Human-Computer Interaction}, year={1991}, month={May}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, publisher={Erlbaum}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grudin91languageEvolution.html}, abstract={Many of the issues that confront designers of interactive computer systems also appear in natural language evolution. Natural languages and human-computer interfaces share as their primary mission the support of extended ''dialogues'' between responsive entities. Because in each case one participant is a human being, some of the pressures operating on natural languages, causing them to evolve in order to better support such dialogue, also operate on human-computer ''languages'' or interfaces. This does not necessarily push interfaces in the direction of natural language - since one entity in this dialogue is not a human, this is not to be expected. Nonetheless, by discerning where the pressures that guide natural language evolution also appear in human-computer interaction, we can contribute to the design of computer systems and obtain a new perspective on natural languages.} } @incollection{gupta99theEmergence, author={P. Gupta and G. S. Dell}, title={The Emergence of Language From Serial Order and Procedural Memory}, year={1999}, address={Hillsdale, NJ}, editor={B. MacWhinney}, publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates}, booktitle={Emergence of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gupta99theEmergence.html} } @article{hare95learningAnd, author={M. Hare and J. L. Elman}, title={Learning and morphological change}, journal={Cognition}, year={1995}, month={July}, volume={56}, number={1}, pages={61-98}, doi={10.1016/0010-0277(94)00655-5}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hare95learningAnd.html}, abstract={An account is offered to change over time in English verb morphology, based on a connectionist approach to how morphological knowledge is acquired and used. A technique is first described that was developed for modeling historical change in connectionist networks, and that technique is applied to model English verb inflection as it developed from the highly complex past tense system of Old English towards that of the modern language, with one predominant ``regular'' inflection and a small number of irregular forms. The model relies on the fact that certain input-output mappings are easier than others to learn in a connectionist network. Highly frequent patterns, or those that share phonological regularities with a number of others, are learned more quickly and with lower error than low-frequency, highly irregular patterns. A network is taught a data set representative of the verb classes of Old English, but learning is stopped before reaching asymptote, and the output of this network is used as the teacher of a new net. As a result, the errors in the first network were passed on to become part of the data set of the second. Those patterns that are hardest to learn led to the most errors, and over time are ``regularized'' to fit a more dominant pattern. The results of the networks simulations were highly consistent with the major historical developments. These results are predicted from well-understood aspects of network dynamics, which therefore provide a rationale for the shape of the attested changes.} } @incollection{harms04inbook, author={William F. Harms}, title={Primitive Content, Translation, and the Emergence of Meaning in Animal Communication}, year={2004}, pages={31-48}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harms04inbook.html} } @incollection{harnad02symbolGrounding, author={S. Harnad}, title={Symbol Grounding and the Origin of Language}, year={2002}, pages={143-158}, editor={Scheutz, M.}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Computationalism: New Directions}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harnad02symbolGrounding.html}, abstract={Many special problems crop up when evolutionary theory turns, quite naturally, to the question of the adaptive value and causal role of consciousness in human and nonhuman organisms. One problem is that -- unless we are to be dualists, treating it as an independent nonphysical force -- consciousness could not have had an independent adaptive function of its own, over and above whatever behavioral and physiological functions it ``supervenes'' on, because evolution is completely blind to the difference between a conscious organism and a functionally equivalent (Turing Indistinguishable) nonconscious ``Zombie'' organism: In other words, the Blind Watchmaker, a functionalist if ever there was one, is no more a mind reader than we are. Hence Turing-Indistinguishability = Darwin-Indistinguishability. It by no means follows from this, however, that human behavior is therefore to be explained only by the push-pull dynamics of Zombie determinism, as dictated by calculations of ``inclusive fitness'' and ``evolutionarily stable strategies.'' We are conscious, and, more important, that consciousness is piggy-backing somehow on the vast complex of unobservable internal activity -- call it ``cognition'' -- that is really responsible for generating all of our behavioral capacities. Hence, except in the palpable presence of the irrational (e.g., our sexual urges) where distal Darwinian factors still have some proximal sway, it is as sensible to seek a Darwinian rather than a cognitive explanation for most of our current behavior as it is to seek a cosmological rather than an engineering explanation of an automobile's behavior. Let evolutionary theory explain what shaped our cognitive capacity (Steklis and Harnad 1976; Harnad 1996, but let cognitive theory explain our resulting behavior.} } @article{harnad90theSymbol, author={Stevan Harnad}, title={The Symbol Grounding Problem}, journal={Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena}, year={1990}, volume={42}, pages={335--346}, doi={10.1016/0167-2789(90)90087-6}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harnad90theSymbol.html}, abstract={There has been much discussion recently about the scope and limits of purely symbolic models of the mind and about the proper role of connectionism in cognitive modeling. This paper describes the ``symbol grounding problem'': How can the semantic interpretation of a formal symbol system be made intrinsic to the system, rather than just parasitic on the meanings in our heads? How can the meanings of the meaningless symbol tokens, manipulated solely on the basis of their (arbitrary) shapes, be grounded in anything but other meaningless symbols? The problem is analogous to trying to learn Chinese from a Chinese/Chinese dictionary alone. A candidate solution is sketched: Symbolic representations must be grounded bottom-up in nonsymbolic representations of two kinds: (1) ``iconic representations'' , which are analogs of the proximal sensory projections of distal objects and events, and (2) ``categorical representations'' , which are learned and innate feature-detectors that pick out the invariant features of object and event categories from their sensory projections. Elementary symbols are the names of these object and event categories, assigned on the basis of their (nonsymbolic) categorical representations. Higher-order (3) ``symbolic representations'' , grounded in these elementary symbols, consist of symbol strings describing category membership relations (e.g., ``An X is a Y that is Z'').

Connectionism is one natural candidate for the mechanism that learns the invariant features underlying categorical representations, thereby connecting names to the proximal projections of the distal objects they stand for. In this way connectionism can be seen as a complementary component in a hybrid nonsymbolic/symbolic model of the mind, rather than a rival to purely symbolic modeling. Such a hybrid model would not have an autonomous symbolic ``module,'' however; the symbolic functions would emerge as an intrinsically ``dedicated'' symbol system as a consequence of the bottom-up grounding of categories' names in their sensory representations. Symbol manipulation would be governed not just by the arbitrary shapes of the symbol tokens, but by the nonarbitrary shapes of the icons and category invariants in which they are grounded.} } @incollection{harnad76induction, author={S. Harnad}, title={Induction, evolution and accountability}, year={1976}, pages={58--60}, editor={S. R. Harnad and H. D. Steklis and J. Lancaster}, publisher={}, booktitle={Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 280}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harnad76induction.html} } @book{harnad76editedbook, author={S. Harnad and H. D. Steklis and J. Lancaster}, title={Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech}, year={1976}, publisher={New York Academy of Sciences}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harnad76editedbook.html}, abstract={Proceedings of NY Academy of Sciences Conference on Evolutionary Origins of Language} } @inproceedings{harman03phonologicalChange, author={Lee Hartman}, title={Modeling Phonological Change}, year={2003}, pages={105-114}, booktitle={Proceedings of Language Evolution and Computation Workshop/Course at ESSLLI}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/harman03phonologicalChange.html} } @incollection{hashimoto01theConstructive, author={Takashi Hashimoto}, title={The constructive approach to the dynamical view of language}, year={2002}, pages={307-324}, address={London}, chapter={14}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto01theConstructive.html} } @inproceedings{hashimoto99modelingCategorization, author={T. Hashimoto}, title={Modeling Categorization Dynamics through Conversation by Constructive Approach}, year={1999}, pages={730-734}, editor={Floreano, D. and Nicoud, J-D and Mondada, F.}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto99modelingCategorization.html} } @inproceedings{hashimoto98developmentOf, author={T. Hashimoto}, title={Development of Meaning Structure by Usage-based Word Relationships}, year={1998}, pages={662--665}, editor={Masanori Sugisaka}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB 3rd'98)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto98developmentOf.html}, keywords={Usage-based viewpoint; Constructive approach; Evolutionary linguistics; Word similarity; Word clusters} } @incollection{hashimoto98dynamicsOf, author={T. Hashimoto}, title={Dynamics of Internal and Global Structure through Linguistic Interactions}, year={1998}, volume={1534}, pages={124--139}, address={Berlin}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={Multi-agent systems and Agent-Based Simulation}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto98dynamicsOf.html} } @inproceedings{hashimoto97usageBased, author={T. Hashimoto}, title={Usage-based Structuralization of Relationships between Words}, year={1997}, pages={483--492}, editor={P. Husbands and I. Harvey}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={ECAL97}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto97usageBased.html} } @phdthesis{hashimoto96evolutionOf, author={T. Hashimoto}, title={Evolution of Code and Communication in Dynamical Networks}, year={1996}, school={Graduate School of Arts and Science, University of Tokyo}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto96evolutionOf.html} } @article{hashimoto96emergenceOf, author={T. Hashimoto and T. Ikegami}, title={Emergence of net-grammar in communicating agents}, journal={Biosystems}, year={1996}, volume={38}, number={1}, pages={1-14}, doi={10.1016/0303-2647(95)01563-9}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto96emergenceOf.html}, keywords={Net-grammar; Algorithmic evolution; Module-type evolution; Evolution of language; Symbolic grammar systems}, abstract={Evolution of symbolic language and grammar is studied in a network model. Language is expressed by words, i.e. strings of symbols, which are generated by agents with their own symbolic grammar system. Agents communicate with each other by deriving and accepting words via rewriting rule set. They are ranked according to their communicative effectiveness: an agent which can derive less frequent and less acceptable words and accept words in less computational time will have higher scores. They can evolve by mutational processes, which change rewriting rules in their symbolic grammars. Complexity and diversity of words increase in the course of time. The emergence of modules and loop structure enhances the evolution. On the other hand, ensemble structure lead to a net-grammar, restricting individual grammars and their evolution.} } @inproceedings{hashimoto95evolutionOf, author={T. Hashimoto and T. Ikegami}, title={Evolution of Symbolic Grammar Systems}, year={1995}, pages={812-823}, editor={F. Moran and et al.}, booktitle={ECAL95}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto95evolutionOf.html} } @inproceedings{hashimoto95communicationNetwork, author={T. Hashimoto and T. Ikegami}, title={Communication Network of Symbolic Grammar Systems}, year={1995}, pages={595--598}, address={Singapore}, editor={Y. Aizawa and et al.}, publisher={World Scientific}, booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Dynamical Systems and Chaos}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto95communicationNetwork.html} } @book{hauser97theEvolution, author={Marc D. Hauser}, title={The Evolution of Communication}, year={1997}, publisher={MIT Press/BradfordBooks}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hauser97theEvolution.html} } @article{hauser07evolutionaryLinguistics, author={Marc D. Hauser and David Barner and Tim O'Donnell}, title={Evolutionary Linguistics: A New Look at an Old Landscape}, journal={Language Learning and Development}, year={2007}, volume={3}, number={2}, pages={101-132}, doi={10.1080/15475440701225394}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hauser07evolutionaryLinguistics.html}, abstract={This article explores the evolution of language, focusing on insights derived from observations and experiments in animals, guided by current theoretical problems that were inspired by the generative theory of grammar, and carried forward in substantial ways to the present by psycholinguists working on child language acquisition. We suggest that over the past few years, there has been a shift with respect to empirical studies of animals targeting questions of language evolution. In particular, rather than focus exclusively on the ways in which animals communicate, either naturally or by means of artificially acquired symbol systems, more recent work has focused on the underlying computational mechanisms subserving the language faculty and the ability of nonhuman animals to acquire these in some form. This shift in emphasis has brought biologists studying animals in closer contact with linguists studying the formal aspects of language, and has opened the door to a new line of empirical inquiry that we label evolingo. Here we review some of the exciting new findings in the evolingo area, focusing in particular on aspects of semantics and syntax.With respect to semantics, we suggest that some of the apparently distinctive and uniquely linguistic conceptual distinctions may have their origins in nonlinguistic conceptual representations; as one example, we present data on nonhuman primates and their capacity to represent a singular–plural distinction in the absence of language. With respect to syntax, we focus on both statistical and rule-based problems, especially the most recent attempts to explore different layers within the Chomsky hierarchy; here, we discuss work on tamarins and starlings, highlighting differences in the patterns of results as well as differences in methodology that speak to potential issues of learnability. We conclude by highlighting some of the exciting questions that lie ahead, as well as some of the methodological challenges that face both comparative and developmental studies of language evolution.} } @article{hauser02science, author={Marc D. Hauser and Noam Chomsky and W. Tecumseh Fitch}, title={The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?}, journal={Science}, year={2002}, month={11}, volume={298}, pages={1569-1579}, doi={10.1126/science.298.5598.1569}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hauser02science.html}, abstract={We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be pro.tably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB)and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an in.nite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).} } @incollection{hauser03whatAre, author={Marc D. Hauser and W. T. Fitch}, title={What are the uniquely human components of the language faculty?}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hauser03whatAre.html} } @article{hauser03music, author={Marc D. Hauser and Josh McDermott}, title={The evolution of the music faculty: a comparative perspective}, journal={Nature Neuroscience}, year={2003}, month={July}, volume={6}, number={7}, pages={663-668}, doi={10.1038/nn1080}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hauser03music.html}, abstract={We propose a theoretical framework for exploring the evolution of the music faculty from a comparative perspective. This framework addresses questions of phylogeny, adaptive function, innate biases and perceptual mechanisms. We argue that comparative studies can make two unique contributions to investigations of the origins of music. First, musical exposure can be controlled and manipulated to an extent not possible in humans. Second, any features of music perception found in nonhuman animals must not be part of an adaptation for music, and must rather be side effects of more general features of perception or cognition. We review studies that use animal research to target specific aspects of music perception (such as octave generalization), as well as studies that investigate more general and shared systems of the mind/brain that may be relevant to music (such as rhythm perception and emotional encoding). Finally, we suggest several directions for future work, following the lead of comparative studies on the language faculty.} } @incollection{hawkins92innatenessAnd, author={John A. Hawkins}, title={Innateness and Function in Language Universals}, year={1992}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hawkins92innatenessAnd.html} } @book{hawkins-Gell-mann-1992-editedbook, title={The Evolution of Human Languages}, year={1992}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hawkinsGellmann1992editedbook.html} } @inproceedings{hayes05informationAgents, author={C. Hayes and P. Avesani and M. Cova}, title={Language Games: Learning Shared Concepts among Distributed Information Agents}, year={2005}, booktitle={IJCAI-05 Workshop: Multi-Agent Information Retrieval and Recommender Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hayes05informationAgents.html}, abstract={Early agent research recognised that co-operating agents require access to unambiguous, semantic description of the same concept, entity or object. In fact, agent-based research on this problem anticipates many of the current initiatives of the Semantic Web project. The proposed solution involves developing a domain-specific ontology that can be mapped to other ontologies as required. In this paper we describe an alternative approach which allows autonomous agents to index shared objects without requiring ex-ante agreement on an ontology. Using a process of distributed negotiation, each agent builds a lexicon of the problem-solving competences of other agents. We present an overview of our work using this approach in three domains: a web services scenario, a multi-case-based agent approach and finally, Tagsocratic, a blog-indexing service. We then describe our future work on several open issues related to this research.} } @inproceedings{hazlehurst_dotsSprinkles, author={Brian Hazlehurst}, title={Dots, sprinkles, and flecks: sonar talk and the distributed cognition model of mind}, year={1996}, booktitle={American Anthropological Association Meetings 1996}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hazlehurst_dotsSprinkles.html}, abstract={The cognitive revolution of the 1950's spawned development of the Turing Machine model of Mind (TMM) entailing both the formalism and practice of casting human cognition in the image of a digital computer. With the TMM, the mechanism of knowing (processing over internal knowledge states) could be integrated with the content of what is known (the mental products of histories of social living). This integration promoted the division of labor among psychologists and anthropologists which persists in many modern studies of mind and culture. This paper presents an alternative model of mind -- the Distributed Cognition model of Mind (DCM) -- based upon a reconstruction of the natures of, and relationships between, culture and cognition. The DCM is founded upon the notions that (1) cognition is built out of interactions among structures, (2) these interactions (instances of processes which employ and create structures) are not limited to events internal to individuals, but distribute across diverse media, social space, and time, and (3) culture is itself such a process, generating many of the structures and processes constituting cognition and human intelligence. The model is supported by data collected during ethnographic fieldwork among fishermen of an island community off the west coast of Sweden. Data analysis demonstrates the negotiated, distributed, and experientially grounded nature of language employed to communicate about sonar images of herring which mediate fishermen's understandings and practice.} } @article{hutchins98propositionsEmergence, author={Brian Hazlehurst and Edwin Hutchins}, title={The Emergence of Propositions from the Co-ordination of Talk and Action in a Shared World}, journal={Language and Cognitive Processes}, year={1998}, month={June}, volume={13}, number={2-3}, pages={373-424}, doi={10.1080/016909698386564}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hutchins98propositionsEmergence.html}, abstract={We present a connectionist model that demonstrates how propositional structure can emerge from the interactions among the members of a community of simple cognitive agents. We first describe a process in which agents coordinating their actions and verbal productions with each other in a shared world leads to the development of propositional structures. We then present a simulation model which implements this process for generating propositions from scratch. We report and discuss the behaviour of the model in terms of its ability to produce three properties of propositions: (1) a coherent lexicon characterised by shared form-meaning mappings; (2) conventional structure in the sequences of forms; (3) the prediction of spatial facts. We show that these properties do not emerge when a single individual learns the task alone and conclude that the properties emerge from the demands of the communication task rather than from anything inside the individual agents. We then show that the shared structural principles can be described as a grammar, and discuss the implications of this demonstration for theories concerning the origins of the structure of language.} } @article{healey07graphicalLanguageGames, author={Patrick G. T. Healey and Nik Swoboda and Ichiro Umata and James King}, title={Graphical language games: Interactional constraints on representational form}, journal={Cognitive Science}, year={2007}, month={MAR-APR}, volume={31}, number={2}, pages={285-309}, doi={10.1080/15326900701221363}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/healey07graphicalLanguageGames.html}, abstract={The emergence of shared symbol systems is considered to be a pivotal moment in human evolution and human development. These changes are normally explained by reference to changes in people's internal cognitive processes. We present 2 experiments which provide evidence that changes in the external, collaborative processes that people use to communicate can also affect the structure and organization of symbol systems independently of cognitive change. We propose that mutual-modifiability--opportunities for people to edit or manipulate each other's contributions--is a key constraint on the emergence of complex symbol systems. We discuss the implications for models of language development and the origins of compositionality.} } @incollection{heggarty06phylogeneticMethods, author={Paul Heggarty}, title={Interdisciplinary Indiscipline? Can Phylogenetic Methods Meaningfully be Applied to Language Data and to Dating Language?}, year={2006}, pages={183-}, chapter={16}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/heggarty06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @incollection{heine02onThe, author={Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva}, title={On the Evolution of Grammatical Forms}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={18}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/heine02onThe.html} } @inproceedings{hinzen06evolang, author={Wolfram Hinzen}, title={Minimalist foundations of language evolution: on the question of why language is the way it is}, year={2006}, pages={115-122}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hinzen06evolang.html}, abstract={I describe and assess the Minimalist Program (MP) as an approach to the evolution of language. The MP is less about evolution than explanation, but if its attempt to vindicate a certain idea of 'design perfection' was successful, a deeper level of explanation would be achieved than historical narrative and functional explanation affords, and the evolution problem would be solved along the way. Arguably, a minimalist methodology is also a necessary component in any explanatory approach to language evolution, no matter its theoretical orientation. While these are clear virtues, I question the MP's central explanatory claim, that language can be understood as an optimal solution to the problem of satisfying interface conditions imposed by pre-linguistic cognitive systems.} } @article{charles60theOrigin, author={Charles F. Hockett}, title={The origin of speech}, journal={Scientific American}, year={1960}, volume={203}, pages={88-96}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/charles60theOrigin.html}, abstract={Man is the only animal that can communicate by means of abstract symbols. Yet this ability shares many features with communication in other animals, and has arisen from these more primitive systems.} } @inproceedings{hoefler06whyAmbiguousSyntax, author={Stefan Hoefler}, title={Why has ambiguous syntax emerged?}, year={2006}, pages={123-130}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hoefler06whyAmbiguousSyntax.html}, abstract={Ambiguity is a defining property of natural language distinguishing it from artificial languages. It would seem to be dysfunctional, and therefore its ubiquity in language poses an evolutionary puzzle. This paper discusses the implications of a typical iterated learning model on the conditions under which syntactic ambiguity emerges and stabilises in language. It contrasts the purely nativist stance that language imperfections such as syntactic ambiguity are artifacts arising from internal constraints of the genetically determined language faculty with the view that they are frozen accidents persisting because they are easily learnt.} } @article{holden04speechOrigin, author={Constance Holden}, title={The Origin of Speech}, journal={Science}, year={2004}, month={February}, volume={303}, number={5662}, pages={1316-1319}, doi={10.1126/science.303.5662.1316}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/holden04speechOrigin.html}, abstract={How did the remarkable ability to communicate in words first evolve? Researchers probing the neurological basis of language are focusing on seemingly unrelated abilities such as mimicry and movement.} } @incollection{holden06phylogeneticMethods, author={Clare J. Holden and Russell D. Gray}, title={Rapid Radiation, Borrowing and Dialect Continua in the Bantu Languages}, year={2006}, pages={19-}, chapter={2}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/holden06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @incollection{holland05languageAcquisition, author={John H. Holland}, title={Language acquisition as a complex adaptive system}, year={2005}, month={July}, editor={James W. Minett and William S.-Y. Wang}, publisher={City University of Hong Kong Press}, booktitle={Language Acquisition, Change and Emergence: Essays in Evolutionary Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/holland05languageAcquisition.html} } @article{holman96quantitative, author={Eric W. Holman}, title={Quantitative properties of the evolution and classification of languages}, journal={Journal of Classification}, year={1996}, month={March}, volume={13}, number={1}, pages={27-56}, doi={10.1007/BF01202581}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/holman96quantitative.html}, keywords={Phylogenetic tree, Cladistics, Language evolution, Birth and death process, Evolutionary rates}, abstract={Statistical analyses of a published phylogenetic classification of languages show some properties attributable to taxonomic methods and others that reflect the nature of linguistic evolution. The inferred phylogenetic tree is less well resolved and more asymmetric at the highest taxonomic ranks, where the tree is constructed mainly by phenetic methods. At lower ranks, where cladistic methods are more prevalent, the asymmetry of well resolved parts of the tree is consistent with a stochastic birth and death process in which languages originate and become extinct at constant rates, although poorly resolved parts of the tree are still more asymmetric than predicted. Other tests applied to a sample of historically recorded languages reveal substantial fluctuations in the rates of origination and extinction, with both rates temporarily reduced when languages enter the historical record. For languages in general, the average origination rate is estimated to be only slightly higher than the average extinction rate, which in turn corresponds to an average lifetime of about 500 years or less.} } @techreport{honkela03SOM, author={T. Honkela and J. Winter}, title={Simulating language learning in community of agents using self-organizing maps}, year={2003}, institution={Helsinky University of Technology, Computer and Information Science Report A71}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/honkela03SOM.html} } @article{hopper87emergentGrammar, author={Paul Hopper}, title={Emergent grammar}, journal={Berkeley Linguistics Conference (BLS)}, year={1987}, volume={13}, pages={139-157}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hopper87emergentGrammar.html} } @article{hull02speciesLanguages, author={D. L. Hull}, title={Species, Languages and the Comparative Method}, journal={Selection}, year={2002}, month={November}, volume={3}, number={1}, pages={17-28}, doi={10.1556/Select.3.2002.1.3}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hull02speciesLanguages.html}, keywords={trees, trees, Selection, phylogeny, homology, homoplasy, hybridism, cladograms, Lamarckian inheritance}, abstract={The evolution of species and languages are compared with respect to the distinction between homologies and homoplasies (or analogies), the prevalence of hybridism, the contrast between scenarios, trees and cladograms, the metaphysical nature of species and languages, and the sense in which the evolution of languages is or is not Lamarckian.} } @article{hunley07geneticCoevolution, author={K.L. Hunley and G.S. Cabana and D.A. Merriwether and J.C. Long}, title={A formal test of linguistic and genetic coevolution in native Central and South America}, journal={American Journal of Physical Anthropology}, year={2007}, month={January}, volume={132}, number={4}, pages={622-631}, doi={10.1002/ajpa.20542}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hunley07geneticCoevolution.html}, keywords={mtDNA; model fitting; Native American language classifications}, abstract={This paper investigates a mechanism of linguistic and genetic coevolution in Native Central and South America. This mechanism proposes that a process of population fissions, expansions into new territories, and isolation of ancestral and descendant groups will produce congruent language and gene trees. To evaluate this population fissions mechanism, we collected published mtDNA sequences for 1,381 individuals from 17 Native Central and South American populations. We then tested the hypothesis that three well-known language classifications also represented the genetic structure of these populations. We rejected the hypothesis for each language classification. Our tests revealed linguistic and genetic correspondence in several shallow branches common to each classification, but no linguistic and genetic correspondence in the deeper branches contained in two of the language classifications. We discuss the possible causes for the lack of congruence between linguistic and genetic structure in the region, and describe alternative mechanisms of linguistic and genetic correspondence and their predictions.} } @phdthesis{hurd97phd, author={P. L. Hurd}, title={Game theoretical perspectives on conflict and biological communication}, year={1997}, school={Stockholm University}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurd97phd.html}, abstract={This thesis investigates communication between animals with conflicting interests. Particular attention is paid to conventional signalling, in which signals are not inherently costly and information is inferred by convention. This type of signalling is emphasised for two reasons: firstly it is communication in its purest sense, and secondly it seems to more accurately reflect the properties of many biological signals. The costs which maintain the evolutionary stability of communication are of great interest because of the apparent benefit to be gained through the use of misleading signals, such as bluffs. I argue that these stabilising costs emerge from the manner in which receivers respond to signals, rather than being inherent to the signals themselves.

The theoretical papers in this thesis begin with the most basic signalling game and proceed towards a more general understanding of conventional signalling. I begin by investigating the importance of signal cost in the simplest possible model of communication, the Action-Response game. I demonstrate that the signals used do not have to be costly to be reliable, even when the signaller and receiver are in a state of conflict. I then consider the effect of adding costs to signals in a game in which reliable conventional signalling already exists, and demonstrate that the costly signals will be used by the weaker, not stronger, signallers. This demonstrates a stabilising mechanism fundamentally different from that of the handicap hypothesis, with its stabilisation through signal cost. Finally, I identify the conditions other than cost which are necessary for conventional signalling to be evolutionarily stable. These conditions relate to the information which both signaller and receiver must gain over the course of an interaction. Most models used to investigate signalling cannot account for behaviour seen in more complicated biological interactions because they are too simple to produce results other than that of the handicap prediction.

The other work included in this thesis addresses issues raised by the models. I review the literature on threat display use by birds, and present evidence that these displays are conventional signals. The stability of conventional signalling rests upon the existence of some common interest within a larger conflict between signaller and receiver. I present a clear example of communication attributable to common interest between fighting opponents. Cichlids of the species Nannacara anomala use a distinct colour signal, the Medial Line display, to coordinate another agonistic behaviour, tail-beating. It appears that both individuals benefit from the clearer assessment of relative fighting ability that this coordination affords. These N. anomala colour displays are quite conspicuous. It has been assumed that when common interest exists, signals will be very subtle, whereas when signaller and receiver are in conflict, signals will be exaggerated and conspicuous. Using an evolving neural-network model, I demonstrate that selection for exaggerated signals may exist even when the signaller and receiver have complete common interests.} } @article{hurd97jtb, author={P. L. Hurd}, title={Is signalling of fighting ability costlier for weaker individuals?}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={1997}, volume={184}, pages={83-88}, doi={10.1006/jtbi.1996.0246}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurd97jtb.html}, abstract={Using a simple model of signaling of fighting ability, I demonstrate that; (1) conventional, cost-free, signals of fighting ability can be an ESS, (2) signals with significant costs can be used at ESS as long as they are used to indicate weakness rather than strength, (3) that if a set of signals is used to indicate a set of fighting abilities through their costs, they must decrease in cost for stronger signalers. The reason for this is that individuals of higher fighting ability have less to gain by avoiding escalated contests, and are thus more sensitive to signal costs. These results are of particular relevance to badges of status and other simultaneous signals used to settle contests over minor resources} } @article{hurd95communicationGame, author={P. L. Hurd}, title={Communication in discrete action-response games}, journal={Journal of Theoretical Biology}, year={1995}, volume={174}, number={2}, pages={217-222}, doi={10.1006/jtbi.1995.0093}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurd95communicationGame.html}, abstract={I present a simple game, the Basic Action-Response game, which allows investigation of the claim that signals must be costly to be reliable. The Basic Action-Response game is the simplest communication game possible, by investigating its parameters we are able to define clearly ``conflict'', ``handicap'', ``communication'' and other relevant concepts. I explore the conditions on the magnitude of the stabilizing cost and handicap that must hold in order to maintain the evolutionary stability of signalling. It will be demonstrated that stable communication need not make use of costly signals at ESS, not even ``on average'', and that ``negative handicaps'' can be stable as long as the stabilizing cost is large enough.} } @incollection{hurford_inselbox, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Evolution of Language}, year={to appear}, editor={Paul Insel and Don Ross}, publisher={Prentice-Hall}, booktitle={Discovering Biology}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford_inselbox.html} } @article{hurford05nounPhrases, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Origin of Noun Phrases: Reference, Truth, and Communication}, journal={Lingua}, year={2007}, month={March}, volume={117}, number={3}, pages={527-542}, doi={10.1016/j.lingua.2005.04.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford05nounPhrases.html}, keywords={Evolution; Grammar; Bipartite structure; Topic; Comment}, abstract={This paper argues for an alternative answer to Carstairs-McCarthy's (1999) question ``Why do all languages distinguish between NPs and sentences?'' While agreeing on basic philosophical points with Carstairs-McCarthy, such as the lack of a distinction between truth and reference independent of grammar, I argue that the S/NP distinction has its roots in the basic communicative distinction between Topic and Comment. In the very earliest mental processes, long antedating language, binary structure can be found, with components that one can associate with the functions of identifying or locating an object and representing some information about it. When private thought went public, the earliest messages in any code with rudimentary syntax were of similar bipartite structure, with one part conveying information presumed to be already known to the hearer, and identifying the object that the message is about. The other part of the bipartite message conveyed information presumed to be new to the hearer. This bipartite structure, with its concomitant distinction between types of expression that could fulfil the respective roles, was central enough to the main function of public language, namely communication, that it was never eroded away, and is the basis of the bipartite structure found universally in languages today.} } @article{hurford06packingStrategy, author={J. Hurford}, title={A performed practice explains a linguistic universal: Counting gives the Packing Strategy}, journal={Lingua}, year={2007}, month={May}, volume={117}, number={5}, pages={773-783}, doi={10.1016/j.lingua.2006.03.002}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford06packingStrategy.html}, keywords={Numerals; Packing Strategy; Universals; Counting; Performance; Grammar}, abstract={A strong constraint on the arithmetical combinations allowed in compound numerals, called the Packing Strategy, applies very widely to numeral systems across the world. A previous attempt to explain the existence of the strong universal constraint, in terms of a gradual socio-historical process of standardization, will not scale up to higher-valued numerals. It is proposed that the real explanation for the Packing Strategy is that it reflects two natural principles applied in the practical task of counting objects. These two principles, `Go as far as you can with the resources you have', and `Minimize the number of entities you are dealing with', are not specific to the counting task, but are of more general application to practical tasks.} } @inproceedings{hurford06ProtoProposition, author={J. Hurford}, title={Proto-propositions}, year={2006}, pages={131-138}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford06ProtoProposition.html}, abstract={Before the evolution of languages as public conventional communication systems, pre-humans had somewhat complex private mental schemes for representing the external world. What is known about human and some animal vision suggests that proposition-like cognitive structures existed for the mental representation of perceived scenes before the advent of complex language. The structures traditionally adopted by formal Logic can be modified to conform to known constraints on the visual representation of scenes. While this modification slightly reduces the expressive power of representations (in that the meanings of some complex sentences cannot naturally be represented), it provides a unified, ontologically parsimonious, primitive notation for cognitive representations, suitable for later recruitment by complex syntactic language. The most basic semantic elements later mapped onto sentences are all present in the prelinguistic mental representation, which reflects the workings of the visual attention system} } @article{hurford06recentDevelopmentsEvoLang, author={J. Hurford}, title={Recent Developments in the Evolution of Language}, journal={Cognitive Systems}, year={2006}, volume={7}, number={1}, pages={23-32}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford06recentDevelopmentsEvoLang.html}, abstract={The last quarter of the 20th century saw a surge in research in the evolution of language, and this activity continues to grow and extend its influence in the present century. This article is a personal review of some conclusions that can be deemed to have been established in that period. Many of these modern conclusions had ancient precursors as speculative hypotheses with little empirical backing. Modern empirical research in a range of fields has driven foundations deeper, and careful theoretical work has begun to weave a more consistent network of ideas across disciplines. Many mysteries remain, but some clear outlines of the evolutionary bases of humans? most distinctive capacity have begun to emerge. Often the clearer outlines have revealed more complex problems than was vaguely suspected earlier. Three propositions have been selected here, and each will be briefly discussed in a separate section. The three propositions are: 'Language' is not a single monolithic behaviour; Animals have rich conceptual systems; Primates are not necessarily the closest to human-like capacities.} } @incollection{hurford05computerModelling, author={J. Hurford}, title={Computer Modelling Widens the Focus of Language Study}, year={2005}, editor={Tallerman, M.}, publisher={Oxford: Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Origins: Perspectives on Evolution}, note={Introduction to part IV: ``Learnability and Diversity: How did Languages Emerge and Diverge?''}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford05computerModelling.html} } @incollection{hurford_LanguageBeyond, author={J. Hurford}, title={Language beyond Our Grasp: What Mirror Neurons Can, and Cannot, Do for the Evolution of Language}, year={2004}, pages={297-313}, address={Cambridge, MA}, editor={D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel}, publisher={MIT Press}, booktitle={Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford_LanguageBeyond.html} } @article{hurford04humanUniqueness, author={J. Hurford}, title={Human uniqueness, learned symbols and recursive thought}, journal={European Review}, year={2004}, volume={12}, number={4}, pages={551-565}, doi={10.1017/S106279870400047X}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford04humanUniqueness.html}, abstract={Human language is qualitatively different from animal communication systems in at least two separate ways. Human languages contain tens of thousands of arbitrary learned symbols (mainly words). No other animal communication system involves learning the component symbolic elements afresh in each individual's lifetime, and certainly not in such vast numbers. Human language also has complex compositional syntax. The meanings of our sentences are composed from the meanings of the constituent parts (e.g. the words). This is obvious to us, but no other animal communication system (with honeybees as an odd but distracting exception) puts messages together in this way. A recent theoretical claim that the sole distinguishing feature of human language is recursion is discussed, and related to these features of learned symbols and compositional syntax. It is argued that recursive thought could have existed in prelinguistic hominids, and that the key step to language was the innovative disposition to learn massive numbers of arbitrary symbols} } @incollection{hurford_evolutionOf, author={J. Hurford}, title={Linguistic Evolution: Cognitive Preadaptations}, year={2004}, address={Chicago}, editor={Philipp Strazny}, publisher={Fitzroy Dearborn}, booktitle={Encyclopedia of Linguistics}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford_evolutionOf.html} } @inproceedings{hurford03ECAL, author={J. Hurford}, title={Why Synonymy is Rare: Fitness is in the Speaker}, year={2003}, pages={442-451}, booktitle={ECAL03}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford03ECAL.html}, abstract={Pure synonymy is rare. By contrast, homonymy is common in languages. Human avoidance of synonymy is plausibly innate, as theorists of differing persuasions have claimed. Innate dispositions to synonymy and homonymy are modelled here, in relation to alternative roles of speaking and hearing in determining fitness.

In the computer model, linguistic signs are acquired via different genetically determined strategies, variously (in)tolerant to synonymy or homonymy. The model defines communicative success as the probability of a speaker getting a message across to a hearer; interpretive success is the probability of a hearer correctly interpreting a speaker's signal. Communicative and interpretive success are compared as bases for reproductive fitness. When communicative success is the basis for fitness, a genotype evolves which is averse to synonymy, while tolerating homonymy. Conversely, when interpretive success is the basis for fitness, a genotype evolves which is averse to homonymy, while tolerating synonymy.} } @incollection{hurford03languageMosaic, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Language Mosaic and its Evolution}, year={2003}, editor={M.H. Christiansen and S. Kirby}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Language Evolution: The States of the Art}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford03languageMosaic.html}, abstract={The human capacity for language and the structures of individual languages can best be understood from an evolutionary perspective. Both the biological capacity and languages owe their shape to events far back in the past. Biological steps toward language-readiness involved preadaptations for modern phonetics, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Once humans were language-ready, ever more complex language systems could grow, relatively fast, by cultural transmission, generation after generation. This latter process is profitably studied by grammaticalization theory and computer modelling.} } @article{hurford01theNeural, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Neural Basis of Predicate-Argument Structure}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={2003}, note={HTML version is a more reliable source (more recent) than a postscript version.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford01theNeural.html} } @incollection{hurford02theRoles, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Roles of Expression and Representation in Language Evolution}, year={2002}, address={Oxford}, chapter={15}, editor={Alison Wray}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={The Transition to Language}, note={HTML version is a more reliable source (more recent) than a postscript version.}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford02theRoles.html} } @incollection{hurford02expression, author={J. Hurford}, title={Expression/induction models of language evolution: dimensions and issues}, year={2002}, month={March}, chapter={10}, editor={Ted Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford02expression.html} } @incollection{hurford01protothoughtHad, author={J. Hurford}, title={Protothought had no logical names}, year={2001}, pages={117-130}, address={Mouton, Berlin}, editor={Jürgen Trabant and Sean Ward}, publisher={}, booktitle={New Essays on the Origins of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford01protothoughtHad.html} } @article{hurford01randomBoolean, author={J. Hurford}, title={Random Boolean Nets and Features of Language}, journal={IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation}, year={2001}, volume={5}, number={2}, pages={111-116}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford01randomBoolean.html}, keywords={Language acquisition, complexity, poverty of stimulus, random Boolean nets, language learnability, language diversity, Chomsky, Kauffman, linguistic parameters, chaos}, abstract={Describes an attempt to cast several abstract properties of natural languages in the framework of Kauffman's (1993, 1995) random Boolean nets (RBN). The properties are complexity, interconnectedness, stability, diversity, and underdeterminedness. A language is modeled as a Boolean net attractor. (Groups of) net nodes are linguistic principles or parameters as posited by Chomskyan theory, according to which the language learner sets parameters to appropriate values on the basis of very limited experience of the language. The setting of one parameter can have a complex effect on the settings of others. A RBN is generated to find an attractor. A state from this attractor is degraded, which represents the degenerate input of language to the learner, and this state is then input to a net with the same connectivity and activation functions as the original net to see whether it converges on the same attractor. Many nets degenerate into attractors representing complete uncertainty. Others settle at intermediate levels of uncertainty, and some manage to overcome the incompleteness of input and converge on attractors identical to that from which the original inputs were (de)generated. Finally, an attempt was made to select a population of such successful nets, using a genetic algorithm where fitness was correlated with an ability to acquire several different languages faithfully. This has so far proved impossible, supporting the Chomskyan suggestion that the human language acquisition capacity is not the outcome of natural selection.} } @incollection{hurford00theEmergence, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Emergence of Syntax}, year={2000}, pages={219-230}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford00theEmergence.html} } @incollection{hurford00socialTransmission, author={J. Hurford}, title={Social transmission favours linguistic generalization}, year={2000}, pages={324-352}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Chris Knight and James R. Hurford and Michael Studdert-Kennedy}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford00socialTransmission.html} } @incollection{hurford99functionalInnateness, author={J. Hurford}, title={Functional Innateness: explaining the critical period for language acquisition}, year={1999}, pages={341-363}, address={John Benjamins, Amsterdam}, editor={Michael Darnell and Edith Moravscik and Frederick Newmeyer and Michael Noonan and Kathleen Wheatley}, publisher={}, booktitle={Functionalism and Formalism in Linguistics, Volume II: Case Studies}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99functionalInnateness.html} } @incollection{hurford99theEvolution, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Evolution of Language and Languages}, year={1999}, pages={173-193}, editor={Robin Dunbar and Chris Knight and Camilla Power}, publisher={Edinburgh University Press}, booktitle={The Evolution of Culture}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99theEvolution.html} } @incollection{hurford99artificiallyGrowing, author={J. Hurford}, title={Artificially growing a numeral system}, year={1999}, pages={7-41}, editor={Jadranka Gvozdanovic}, publisher={}, booktitle={Numeral Types and Changes Worldwide}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99artificiallyGrowing.html} } @inproceedings{hurford99languageLearning, author={J. Hurford}, title={Language Learning from Fragmentary Input}, year={1999}, pages={121-129}, booktitle={Proceedings of the AISB'99 Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99languageLearning.html} } @incollection{hurford98introductionThe, author={J. Hurford}, title={Introduction: The emergence of syntax}, year={1998}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford98introductionThe.html} } @article{hurford98bookreview, author={Jim Hurford}, title={Review of ``The Symbolic Species: The co-evolution of language and the human brain'', by Terrence Deacon, 1997}, journal={The Times Literary Supplement}, year={1998}, month={October}, pages={34}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford98bookreview.html} } @incollection{hurford92anApproach, author={J. Hurford}, title={An Approach to the Phylogeny of the Language Faculty}, year={1992}, pages={273-303}, address={Reading, MA}, editor={Hawkins, John A. and Murray Gell-Mann}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={The Evolution of Human Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford92anApproach.html} } @article{hurford91theEvolution, author={J. Hurford}, title={The Evolution of the Critical Period for Language Acquisition}, journal={Cognition}, year={1991}, volume={40}, number={3}, pages={159-201}, doi={10.1016/0010-0277(91)90024-X}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford91theEvolution.html}, abstract={Evidence suggests that there is a critical, or at least a sensitive, period for language acquisition, which ends around puberty. The existence of this period is explained by an evolutionary model which assumes that (a) linguistic ability is in principle (if not in practice) measurable, and (b) the amount of language controlled by an individual conferred selective advantage on it. In this model, the language faculty is seen as adaptive, favoured by natural selection, while the critical period for language acquisition itself is not an adaptation, but arises from the interplay of genetic factors influencing life-history characters in relation to language acquisition. The evolutionary model is implemented on a computer and simulations of populations evolving under various plausible, if idealized, conditions result in clear critical period effects, which end around puberty.} } @incollection{hurford90nativist, author={J. Hurford}, title={Nativist and functional explanations in language acquisition}, year={1990}, pages={85-136}, address={Foris, Dordrecht}, editor={I. M. Roca}, publisher={}, booktitle={Logical Issues in Language Acquisition}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford90nativist.html} } @article{hurford90beyondThe, author={J. Hurford}, title={Beyond the Roadblock in Linguistic Evolution Studies}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1990}, volume={13}, number={4}, pages={736-737}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford90beyondThe.html} } @article{hurford89biologicalEvolution, author={J. Hurford}, title={Biological evolution of the Saussurean sign as a component of the language acquisition device}, journal={Lingua}, year={1989}, volume={77}, number={2}, pages={187-222}, doi={10.1016/0024-3841(89)90015-6}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford89biologicalEvolution.html}, abstract={Most linguistic theories assume lexicon entries which incorporate the idea of the Saussurean sign, a bidirectional mapping between a phonological form and some representation of a concept. This Sign, like grammars generally, is unbiased with respect to perception or production, and provides part of the cognitive map which speakers use both in speaking and in interpreting the utterances of others. This bidirectionality of the Sign, or code, is a design feature of human language although workable communication does not necessarily incorporate such a feature.

Part of the Language Acquisition Device is a mechanism which mentally constructs such a bidirectional mapping, on the basis of observed samples of communicative behaviour (transmission and reception). This basic aspect of the LAD presumably evolved because of its superiority over other conceivable mechanisms for acquiring a basis for communicative behaviour from a sampling of observed transmission and reception data.

Three conceivable strategies for acquiring the basis of communicative behaviour, here labelled the Imitator, Calculator, and Saussurean strategies, are defined as functions from samplings of observed behaviour to acquired behaviour patterns. Essentially, the Imitator imitates the transmission and reception patterns in the observed sample; the Calculator constructs optimal reception responses to the transmissions in the observed sample and optimal transmission responses to receptions in the observed sample; the Saussurean imitates the transmission behaviour in the sample, but shapes his reception behaviour to mirror the acquired transmission behaviour, thus internalizing the equivalent of a set of bidirectional Saussurean signs. Extensive simulations of populations endowed with these innate strategies show the Saussurean strategy to be a winner in evolutionary terms; it produces individuals who communicate more successfully than individuals endowed with the other two strategies.} } @book{hurford87LanguageAndNumber, author={J. Hurford}, title={Language and Number: the emergence of a cognitive system}, year={1987}, address={Oxford}, publisher={Basil Blackwell}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford87LanguageAndNumber.html} } @article{kirby97evolutionMight, author={Jim Hurford and Sam Joseph and Simon Kirby and Alastair Reid}, title={Evolution might select constructivism}, journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences}, year={1997}, volume={20}, pages={567-568}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby97evolutionMight.html}, abstract={There is evidence for increase, followed by decline, in synaptic numbers during development. Dendrites do not function in isolation. A constructive neuronal process may underpin a selectionist cognitive process. The environment shapes both ontogeny and phylogeny. Phylogenetic natural selection and neural selection are compatible. Natural selection can yield both constructivist and selectionist solution to adaptuive problems.} } @incollection{hurford99coEvolution, author={J. Hurford and S. Kirby}, title={Co-Evolution of Language Size and the Critical Period}, year={1999}, pages={39-63}, editor={David Birdsong}, publisher={Lawrence Erlbaum}, booktitle={Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford99coEvolution.html} } @book{hurford-etal-1998-editedbook, title={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, year={1998}, editor={Hurford, J. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight, C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurfordetal1998editedbook.html} } @incollection{hutchins01autoOrganization, author={Edwin Hutchins and Brian Hazlehurst}, title={Auto-Organization and Emergence of Shared Language Structure}, year={2002}, pages={279-306}, address={London}, chapter={13}, editor={Angelo Cangelosi and Domenico Parisi}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Simulating the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hutchins01autoOrganization.html} } @incollection{hutchins95howTo, author={E. Hutchins and B. Hazlehurst}, title={How to invent a lexicon: the development of shared symbols in interaction}, year={1995}, address={London}, editor={G. N. Gilbert and R. Conte}, publisher={UCL Press}, booktitle={Artificial Societies: The computer simulation of social life}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hutchins95howTo.html}, abstract={In this paper, we elaborate upon the framework by considering more explicitly the problem of creating shared symbolic structure. A lexicon is (among other things) a set of public structures for denoting or implicating shared meanings. In other words, the existence of a lexicon requires the sharing of forms and meanings -- and mappings between these -- among members of an interacting population of agents. Leaving aside cosmic and theological events which could create such an outcome, how could a lexicon come to be? The solution provided here is based upon a convergence of agents' schemes for classifying visual phenomena. All agents have a capacity for such classification, but convergence upon a singular scheme is shaped by the constraints for consensus when employing the scheme in interaction with other agents.} } @inproceedings{hutchins92alife, author={Edwin Hutchins and Brian Hazlehurst}, title={Learning in the Cultural Process}, year={1992}, pages={689--706}, editor={C. Langton and C. Taylor and D. Farmer and S. Rasmussen}, publisher={Addison-Wesley}, booktitle={Artificial Life II}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hutchins92alife.html}, abstract={In this paper, we introduce a framework for simulating cultural process. The general idea is to simulate a world in which learning agents create external structures which mediate their behavior. This simulation demonstrates the simple (but very important) concept that such a system is capable, through generations of time, of producing agents endowed with cognitive powers that are not attainable in the lifetime of any individual agent. We argue that such an outcome is possible without effecting the genetic organization of individuals. However, we also argue that the cultural process is capable of guiding both learning and phylogenetic evolution, which leaves open the possiblity of genetic organization tracking cultural process.} } @article{itoh04isingModel, author={Yoshiaki Itoh and Sumie Ueda}, title={The Ising model for changes in word ordering rules in natural languages}, journal={Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena}, year={2004}, month={11}, volume={198}, number={3-4}, pages={333-339}, doi={10.1016/j.physd.2004.09.006}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/itoh04isingModel.html}, keywords={Ising model; Word ordering rules; Languages}, abstract={The order of 'noun and adposition' is an important parameter of word ordering rules in the world's languages. The seven parameters, 'adverb and verb' and others, depend strongly on the 'noun and adposition'. Japanese as well as Korean, Tamil and several other languages seem to have a stable structure of word ordering rules, while Thai and other languages, which have the opposite word ordering rules to Japanese, are also stable in structure. It seems therefore that each language in the world fluctuates between these two structures like the Ising model for finite lattice.} } @inproceedings{iwahashi06robotsEELC, author={Naoto Iwahashi}, title={Robots That Learn Language: Developmental Approach to Human-Machine Conversations}, year={2006}, pages={143-167}, editor={P. Vogt and et al.}, publisher={Springer}, booktitle={Symbol Grounding and Beyond: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication}, doi={10.1007/11880172_12}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/iwahashi06robotsEELC.html}, abstract={This paper describes a machine learning method that enables robots to learn the capability of linguistic communication from scratch through verbal and nonverbal interaction with users. The method focuses on two major problems that should be pursued to realize natural human-machine conversation: a scalable grounded symbol system and belief sharing. The learning is performed in the process of joint perception and joint action with a user. The method enables the robot to learn beliefs for communication by combining speech, visual, and behavioral reinforcement information in a probabilistic framework. The beliefs learned include speech units like phonemes or syllables, a lexicon, grammar, and pragmatic knowledge, and they are integrated in a system represented by a dynamical graphical model. The method also enables the user and the robot to infer the state of each other’s beliefs related to communication. To facilitate such inference, the belief system held by the robot possesses a structure that represents the assumption of shared beliefs and allows for fast and robust adaptation of it through communication with the user. This adaptive behavior of the belief systems is modeled by the structural coupling of the belief systems held by the robot and the user, and it is performed through incremental online optimization in the process of interaction. Experimental results reveal that through a practical, small number of learning episodes with a user, the robot was eventually able to understand even fragmental and ambiguous utterances, act upon them, and generate utterances appropriate for the given situation. This work discusses the importance of properly handling the risk of being misunderstood in order to facilitate mutual understanding and to keep the coupling effective.} } @inproceedings{jack05languageAcquisitionGame, author={Kris Jack}, title={Introducing a Scene Building Game to Model Early First Language Acquisition}, year={2005}, address={Manchester, England}, booktitle={The 8th Annual CLUK Research Colloquium}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jack05languageAcquisitionGame.html}, abstract={This paper introduces a game which, when used in conjunction with a language learning algorithm, exhibits features of natural language production found to occur in young children. The game enables a rich and complex set of training data to be generated and acts as a quantifiable measure of linguistic ability, both for human and simulated players.} } @inproceedings{jack06syllablesToSyntax, author={Kris Jack and Chris Reed and Annalu Waller}, title={From Syllables to Syntax: Investigating Staged Linguistic Development through Computational Modelling}, year={2006}, address={Sheridan}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society}, note={accepted and under revision}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jack06syllablesToSyntax.html}, abstract={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.} } @inproceedings{jack04emergentSyntax, author={Kris Jack and Chris Reed and Annalu Waller}, title={A Computational Model of Emergent Syntax: Supporting the Natural Transition from the One-word Stage to the Two-Word Stage}, year={2004}, address={Geneva}, booktitle={Working Notes of the Coling2004 Workshop on Psycho-Computational Models of Human Language Acquisition}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jack04emergentSyntax.html}, abstract={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.} } @book{jackendoff02, author={Ray Jackendoff}, title={Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution}, year={2002}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jackendoff02.html} } @article{jackendoff99possibleStages, author={Ray Jackendoff}, title={Possible stages in the evolution of the language capacity}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={1999}, volume={3}, number={7}, pages={272-279}, doi={10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01333-9}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jackendoff99possibleStages.html}, keywords={Language; Syntax; Evolution; Symbols; Semantic relationships}, abstract={Much current discussion of the evolution of language has concerned the emergence of a stage in which single vocal or gestural signals were used symbolically. Assuming the existence of such a stage, the present review decomposes the emergence of modern language into nine partially ordered steps, each of which contributes to precision and variety of expression. Bickerton's proposed `protolanguage' falls somewhere in the middle of this succession. In addition to the by-now accepted evidence from language learning, language disorders, and ape language experiments, modern languages provide evidence of these stages of evolution through the presence of detectable `fossils' in vocabulary and grammar.} } @article{jackendoff_pinker05ReplytoFitchHauserChomsky52, author={Ray Jackendoff and Steven Pinker}, title={The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language (Reply to Fitch, Hauser, and Chomsky)}, journal={Cognition}, year={2005}, month={September}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jackendoff_pinker05ReplytoFitchHauserChomsky52.html}, abstract={In a continuation of the conversation with Fitch, Chomsky, and Hauser on the evolution of language, we examine their defense of the claim that the uniquely human, language-specific part of the language faculty (the ``narrow language faculty'') consists only of recursion, and that this part cannot be considered an adaptation to communication. We argue that their characterization of the narrow language faculty is problematic for many reasons, including its dichotomization of cognitive capacities into those that are utterly unique and those that are identical to nonlinguistic or nonhuman capacities, omitting capacities that may have been substantially modified during human evolution. We also question their dichotomy of the current utility versus original function of a trait, which omits traits that are adaptations for current use, and their dichotomy of humans and animals, which conflates similarity due to common function and similarity due to inheritance from a recent common ancestor. We show that recursion, though absent from other animals' communications systems, is found in visual cognition, hence cannot be the sole evolutionary development that granted language to humans. Finally, we note that despite Fitch et al.'s denial, their view of language evolution is tied to Chomsky's conception of language itself, which identifies combinatorial productivity with a core of ``narrow syntax.'' An alternative conception, in which combinatoriality is spread across words and constructions, has both empirical advantages and greater evolutionary plausibility.} } @article{jager07EGTtypology, author={Gerhard Jager}, title={Evolutionary game theory and typology: A case study}, journal={Language}, year={2007}, month={MAR}, volume={83}, number={1}, pages={74-109}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager07EGTtypology.html}, abstract={This article deals with the typology of the case marking of semantic core roles. The competing economy considerations of hearer (disambiguation) and speaker (minimal effort) are formalized in terms of EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY. It is shown that the case-marking patterns that are attested in the languages of the world are those that are evolutionarily stable for different relative weightings of speaker economy and hearer economy, given the statistical patterns of language use that were extracted from corpora of naturally occurring conversations.} } @inproceedings{jager06convexMeaning, author={Gerhard Jager}, title={Convex meanings and evolutionary stability}, year={2006}, pages={139-144}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager06convexMeaning.html}, abstract={Gardenfors (2000) argues that natural denotations of natural language predicates are convex regions in a conceptual space. Using techniques from evolutionary game theory, the paper shows that this convexity criterion is a consequence of the evolutionary dynamics of language use.} } @inproceedings{jager03ESSLLI, author={Gerhard Jager}, title={Simulating language change with Functional OT}, year={2003}, pages={52-61}, address={Vienna}, editor={Simon Kirby}, booktitle={Proceedings of Language Evolution and Computation Workshop/Course at ESSLLI}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager03ESSLLI.html} } @inproceedings{jager03gameAndTypology, author={Gerhard Jager}, title={Evolutionary Game Theory and Linguistic Typology: A Case Study}, year={2003}, address={ILLC, University of Amsterdam}, editor={P. Dekker}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 14th Amsterdam Colloquium}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager03gameAndTypology.html} } @unpublished{jager02userManual, author={Gerhard Jager}, title={evolOT: Software for simulating language evolution using Stochastic Optimality Theory User's manual}, year={2002}, note={Software User's Manual}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager02userManual.html} } @article{jager07languageStructure, author={Gerhard Jager and Robert van Rooij}, title={Language structure: psychological and social constraints}, journal={Synthese}, year={2007}, month={NOV}, volume={159}, number={1}, pages={99-130}, doi={10.1007/s11229-006-9073-5}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jager07languageStructure.html}, keywords={language universals; evolution; Game theory}, abstract={In this article we discuss the notion of a linguistic universal, and possible sources of such invariant properties of natural languages. In the first part, we explore the conceptual issues that arise. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the explanatory potential of horizontal evolution. We particularly focus on two case studies, concerning Zipf's Law and universal properties of color terms, respectively. We show how computer simulations can be employed to study the large scale, emergent, consequences of psychologically and psychologically motivated assumptions about the working of horizontal language transmission.} } @inproceedings{jain95teamLearning, author={Sanjay Jain and Arun Sharma}, title={Team learning of formal languages}, year={1995}, address={Tahoe City, CA}, editor={Diana Gordon}, booktitle={Working Notes of the ICML'95 Workshop on Agents that Learn from Other Agents}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jain95teamLearning.html} } @inproceedings{jansen03aisb, author={Bart Jansen and Bart de Vylder and Bart de Boer and Tony Belpaeme}, title={Emerging shared action categories in robotic agents through imitation}, year={2003}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jansen03aisb.html}, abstract={In this paper we present our work on developing a shared repertoire of action categories through imitation. A population of robotic agents invents and shares a repertoire of actions by engaging in imitative interactions. We present an experimental set-up which enables us to investigate what properties agents should have in order to achieve this. Among these properties are: being able to determine the other’s actions from visual observation and doing incremental unsupervised categorisation of actions.} } @inproceedings{jeffreys06evolang, author={Mark Jeffreys}, title={Natural-language 'cheap talk' enables coordination on a social-dilemma game in a culturally homogeneous population}, year={2006}, pages={145-151}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jeffreys06evolang.html}, abstract={ChickenHawk is a social-dilemma game in which the only way to win is to play ''Hawk'' against ''Chicken.'' The purpose of the game is to distinguish between uncoordinated and coordinated self-sacrifice. In a test of four signaling conditions with players who belong to a culturally homogeneous population, a 'cheap talk' condition led to efficient coordination, whereas signaling opportunities engaging social reputation and allowing eye-contact without speech yielded poorly coordinated altruistic behavior. The implications are: (1) without language, mere willingness to cooperate on a social dilemma is insufficient for coordinating intentions, and (2) given a sufficiently cohesive social group, language can coordinate inequitable, altruistic sacrifices of modest but real material incentives, even where fully anonymous defection is an option.} } @book{jenkins04edited-book, title={Variation and universals in biolinguistics}, year={2004}, editor={Lyle Jenkins}, publisher={Elsevier}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jenkins04editedbook.html} } @inproceedings{jenkins97biolinguistics, author={Lyle Jenkins}, title={Biolinguistics - Structure, development and evolution of language}, year={1997}, booktitle={The 40th Anniversary of Generativism: Proceedings of electronic conference December}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jenkins97biolinguistics.html} } @inproceedings{jenkins03ECAL, author={Tudor Jenkins}, title={A Noisy Way to Evolve Signaling Behaviour}, year={2003}, pages={452-461}, booktitle={ECAL03}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jenkins03ECAL.html}, abstract={This paper looks at the way signaling behaviour can arise within a population of evolving agents involved in complex task domains where problem-solving behaviours need to be developed and integrated with appropriate signaling strategies. A method is proposed to overcome the difficulties of evolving separate yet compatible parts required by transmitters and receivers that serve no function but communication. The validity of this method is supported by a series of experiments. These not only succeed in evolving agents capable of controlling and enhancing complex behaviours through signaling but also demonstrate how bigger search spaces with more signal channels than might be needed can lead to faster adaptation.} } @inproceedings{jim01howCommunication, author={Kam-Chuen Jim and C. Lee Giles}, title={How communication can improve the performance of multi-agent systems}, year={2001}, month={May}, booktitle={Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Autonomous agents}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jim01howCommunication.html}, abstract={We analyze a general model of multi-agent communication in which all agents learn to communicate simultaneously to a message board. We show that the communicating multi-agent system is equivalent to a Mealy finite state machine whose states are determined by the agents' usage of the learned language. Increasing the language size increases the number of possible states in the Mealy machine, and can improve the performance of the multi-agent system. We introduce the term \em semantic density to describe the average number of meanings assigned to each word of a language. Using semantic density, a simple rule is presented that provides a pessimistic estimate of the minimum language size that should be used for any multi-agent problem in which the agents communicate simultaneously. Simulations on a version of the predator-prey pursuit problem, a simplified version of problems seen in warfare scenarios, validate these predictions. The communicating predators evolved using a genetic algorithm perform significantly better than all previous work on similar preys.} } @article{jim00talkingHelps, author={Kam-Chuen Jim and C. Lee Giles}, title={Talking Helps: Evolving Communicating Agents for the Predator-Prey Pursuit Problem}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={2000}, volume={6}, number={3}, pages={237--254}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/jim00talkingHelps.html}, abstract={We analyze a general model of multi-agent communication in which all agents communicate simultaneously to a message board. A genetic algorithm is used to evolve multi-agent languages for the predator agents in a version of the predator-prey pursuit problem. We show that the resulting behavior of the communicating multi-agent system is equivalent to that of a Mealy finite state machine whose states are determined by the agents’ usage of the evolved language. Simulations show that the evolution of a communication language improves the performance of the predators. Increasing the language size (and thus increasing the number of possible states in the Mealy machine) improves the performance even further. Furthermore, the evolved communicating predators perform significantly better than all previous work on similar prey. We introduce a method for incrementally increasing the language size, which results in an effective coarse-to-fine search that significantly reduces the evolution time required to find a solution. We present some observations on the effects of language size, experimental setup, and prey difficulty on the evolved Mealy machines. In particular, we observe that the start state is often revisited, and incrementally increasing the language size results in smaller Mealy machines. Finally, a simple rule is derived that provides a pessimistic estimate on the minimum language size that should be used for any multi-agent problem.} } @inproceedings{johansson06evolangGrammar, author={Sverker Johansson}, title={Working backwards from modern language to proto-grammar}, year={2006}, pages={160-167}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/johansson06evolangGrammar.html}, abstract={The possibilities for a stepwise evolution of grammar are evaluated through an analysis of which components of modern human grammar are removable, and in what order, while still leaving a functional communication system. It is found that recursivity is a prime candidate for being a late evolutionary addition, with flexibility and hierarchical rules coming next. Furthermore, it is argued that recursivity need not be the unitary infinite-loop concept of formal grammars, but can evolve in several smaller steps.} } @inproceedings{johansson06evolangTime, author={Sverker Johansson}, title={Constraining the time when language evolved}, year={2006}, pages={152-159}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/johansson06evolangTime.html}, abstract={The precise timing of the emergence of language in human prehistory cannot be resolved. But the available evidence is sufficient to constrain it to some degree. This is a review and synthesis of the available evidence, leading to the conclusion that the time when speech became important for our ancestors can be constrained to be not less than 500,000 years ago, thus excluding several popular theories involving a late transition to speech.} } @inproceedings{joyce03iccm, author={D. Joyce and L. Richards and A. Cangelosi and K.R. Coventry}, title={On the foundations of perceptual symbol systems: Specifying embodied representations via connectionism}, year={2003}, pages={147-152}, address={Universitatsverlag Bamberg}, editor={F. Detje and D. Dorner and H. Schaub}, booktitle={The Logic of Cognitive Systems. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/joyce03iccm.html} } @article{juergens06languageEvolver, author={Elmar Juergens and Markus Pizka}, title={The Language Evolver Lever: Tool Demonstration}, journal={Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science}, year={2006}, month={Oct}, volume={164}, number={2}, pages={55-60}, doi={10.1016/j.entcs.2006.10.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/juergens06languageEvolver.html}, keywords={domain specific languages; bottom-up language development; language evolution; coupled transformation}, abstract={Since many domains are constantly evolving, the associated domain specific languages (DSL) inevitably have to evolve too, to retain their value. But the evolution of a DSL can be very expensive, since existing words of the language (i.e. programs) and tools have to be adapted according to the changes of the DSL itself. In such cases, these costs seriously limit the adoption of DSLs. This paper presents Lever, a tool for the evolutionary development of DSLs. Lever aims at making evolutionary changes to a DSL much cheaper by automating the adaptation of the DSL parser as well as existing words and providing additional support for the correct adaptation of existing tools (e.g. program generators). This way, Lever simplifies DSL maintenance and paves the ground for bottom-up DSL development.} } @article{juola03languageChange, author={Patrick Juola}, title={The Time Course of Language Change}, journal={Computers and the Humanities}, year={2003}, month={February}, volume={37}, number={1}, pages={77-96}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/juola03languageChange.html}, keywords={information theory, KL-distance, language change, linguistic distance, mathematics of language}, abstract={This paper presents a numeric and information theoretic model for the measuring of language change, without specifying the particular type of change. It is shown that this measurement is intuitively plausible and that meaningful measurements can be made from as few as 1000 characters. This measurement technique is extended to the task of determining the ``rate'' of language change based on an examination of brief excerpts from the National Geographic Magazine and determining both their linguistic distance from one another as well as the number of years of temporal separation. A statistical analysis of these results shows, first, that language change can be measured, and second, that the rate of language change has not been uniform, and that in particular, the period 1939–1948 had particularly slow change, while 1949–1958 and 1959–1968 had particularly rapid changes.} } @inproceedings{kaiser96learningBasisMAS, author={M. Kaiser and R. Dillmann and O. Rogalla}, title={Communication as the Basis for Learning in Multi-Agent Systems}, year={1996}, address={Budapest, Hungary}, booktitle={ECAI-96 Workshop on Learning in Distributed AI Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kaiser96learningBasisMAS.html}, abstract={This paper discusses the significance of communication between individual agents that are embedded into learning Multi-Agent Systems. For several learning tasks occurring within a Multi-Agent System, communication activities are investigated and the need for a mutual understanding of agents participating in the learning process is made explicit. Thus, the need for a common ontology to exchange learning-related information is shown. Building this ontology is an additional learning task that is not only extremely important, but also extremely difficult. We propose a solution that is motivated by the human ability to understand each other even in the absence of a common language by using alternative communication channels, such as gestures.} } @article{kalampokis07vocabularyOnNetworks, author={Alkiviadis Kalampokis and Kosmas Kosmidis and Panos Argyrakis}, title={Evolution of vocabulary on scale-free and random networks}, journal={Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications}, year={2007}, month={Jun}, volume={379}, number={2}, pages={665-671}, doi={10.1016/j.physa.2006.12.048}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kalampokis07vocabularyOnNetworks.html}, keywords={language evolution; scale-free networks; Monte Carlo simulations}, abstract={We examine the evolution of the vocabulary of a group of individuals (linguistic agents) on a scale-free network, using Monte Carlo simulations and assumptions from evolutionary game theory. It is known that when the agents are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice structure and interact by diffusion and encounter, then their final vocabulary size is the maximum possible. Knowing all available words is essential in order to increase the probability to 'survive' by effective reproduction. On scale-free networks we find a different result. It is not necessary to learn the entire vocabulary available. Survival chances are increased by using the vocabulary of the 'hubs' (nodes with high degree). The existence of the 'hubs' in a scale-free network is the source of an additional important fitness generating mechanism. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.} } @article{kalish07iteratedLearning, author={Michael L. Kalish and Thomas L. Griffiths and Stephan Lewandowsky}, title={Iterated learning: Intergenerational knowledge transmission reveals inductive biases}, journal={Psychonomic Bulletin and Review}, year={2007}, month={APR}, volume={14}, number={2}, pages={288-294}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kalish07iteratedLearning.html}, abstract={Cultural transmission of information plays a central role in shaping human knowledge. Some of the most complex knowledge that people acquire, such as languages or cultural norms, can only be learned from other people, who themselves learned from previous generations. The prevalence of this process of âśiterated learningâť as a mode of cultural transmission raises the question of how it affects the information being transmitted. Analyses of iterated learning under the assumption that the learners are Bayesian agents predict that this process should converge to an equilibrium that reflects the inductive biases of the learners. An experiment in iterated function learning with human participants confirms this prediction, providing insight into the consequences of intergenerational knowledge transmission and a method for discovering the inductive biases that guide human inferences.} } @inproceedings{kanj06evolutionReconstructing, author={Iyad A. Kanj and Luay Nakhleh and Ge Xia}, title={Reconstructing Evolution of Natural Languages: Complexity and Parameterized Algorithms}, year={2006}, pages={299-308}, booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON 2006)}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kanj06evolutionReconstructing.html}, abstract={In a recent article, Nakhleh, Ringe and Warnow introduced perfect phylogenetic networks --a model of language evolution where languages do not evolve via clean speciation-- and formulated a set of problems for their accurate reconstruction. Their new methodology assumes networks, rather than trees, as the correct model to capture the evolutionary history of natural languages. They proved the NP-hardness of the problem of testing whether a network is a perfect phy- logenetic one for characters exhibiting at least three states, leaving open the case of binary characters, and gave a straightforward brute-force parameterized algorithm for the problem of running time O(3k n), where k is the number of bidirectional edges in the network and n is its size. In this paper, we first establish the NP-hardness of the binary case of the problem. Then we provide a more efficient parameterized algorithm for this case running in time O(2k n 2). The presented algorithm is very simple, and utilizes some structural results and elegant operations developed in this paper that can be useful on their own in the design of heuristic algorithms for the problem. The analysis phase of the algorithm is very elegant using amortized techniques to show that the upper bound on the running time of the algorithm is much tighter than the upper bound obtained under a conservative worst-case scenario assumption. Our results bear significant impact on reconstructing evolutionary histories of languages --particularly from phonological and morphological character data, most of which exhibit at most two states (i.e., are binary), as well as on the design and analysis of parameterized algorithms.} } @article{Kaplan05distributedCoordination, author={Frederic Kaplan}, title={Simple models of distributed co-ordination}, journal={Connection Science}, year={2005}, month={December}, volume={17}, number={3-4}, pages={249-270}, doi={10.1080/09540090500177596}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Kaplan05distributedCoordination.html}, keywords={Self-organizing communication stystems, Scaling laws, Markov chains, Stochastic games, Polya processes}, abstract={Distributed co-ordination is the result of dynamical processes enabling independent agents to co-ordinate their actions without the need of a central co-ordinator. In the past few years, several computational models have illustrated the role played by such dynamics for self-organizing communication systems. In particular, it has been shown that agents could bootstrap shared convention systems based on simple local adaptation rules. Such models have played a pivotal role for our understanding of emergent language processes. However, only few formal or theoretical results have been published about such systems. Deliberately simple computational models are discussed in this paper in order to make progress in understanding the underlying dynamics responsible for distributed co-ordination and the scaling laws of such systems. In particular, the paper focuses on explaining the convergence speed of those models, a largely under-investigated issue. Conjectures obtained through empirical and qualitative studies of these simple models are compared with results of more complex simulations and discussed in relation to theoretical models formalized using Markov chains, game theory and Polya processes.} } @inproceedings{kaplan00talking, author={Frédéric Kaplan}, title={Talking aibo: First experimentation of verbal interactions with an autonomous four-legged robot}, year={2000}, booktitle={Proceedings of the CELE-Twente workshop on interacting agents}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kaplan00talking.html} } @inproceedings{kaplan00semioticSchemata, author={F. Kaplan}, title={Semiotic schemata: Selection units for linguistic cultural evolution}, year={2000}, editor={Bedau, M and McCaskill, J. and Packard, N. and Rasmussen, S.}, publisher={The MIT Press}, booktitle={Artificial Life VII}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kaplan00semioticSchemata.html} } @inproceedings{kaplan98aNew, author={F. Kaplan}, title={A New Approach to Class Formation in Multi-Agent Simulations of Language Evolution}, year={1998}, editor={Demazeau, Y.}, publisher={IEEE Computer Society}, booktitle={ICMAS98}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kaplan98aNew.html} } @inproceedings{kaplan98anArchitecture, author={F. Kaplan and L. Steels and A. McIntyre}, title={An architecture for evolving robust shared communication systems in noisy environments}, year={1998}, address={Tokyo}, booktitle={Proceedings of Sony Research Forum 1998}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kaplan98anArchitecture.html}, keywords={multi-agent systems, simulation, language games, evolutionary linguistics, naming games,agents} } @inproceedings{kawamura99antsWar, author={Hidenori Kawamura and Masahito Yamamoto and Keiji Suzuki and Azuma Ohuchi}, title={Ants War with Evolutive Pheromone Style Communication}, year={1999}, pages={639-643}, address={Berlin}, editor={D. Floreano and J.-D. Nicoud and F. Mondada}, publisher={Springer-Verlag}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kawamura99antsWar.html} } @article{kay98theHypoglossal, author={Richard F. Kay and Matt Cartmill and Michelle Balow}, title={The Hypoglossal Canal and the Origin of Human Vocal Behavior}, journal={PNAS}, year={1998}, month={April}, volume={95}, number={9}, pages={5417-5419}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kay98theHypoglossal.html}, abstract={The mammalian hypoglossal canal transmits the nerve that supplies the muscles of the tongue. This canal is absolutely and relatively larger in modern humans than it is in the African apes (Pan and Gorilla). We hypothesize that the human tongue is supplied more richly with motor nerves than are those of living apes and propose that canal size in fossil hominids may provide an indication about the motor coordination of the tongue and reflect the evolution of speech and language. Canals of gracile Australopithecus, and possibly Homo habilis, fall within the range of extant Pan and are significantly smaller than those of modern Homo. The canals of Neanderthals and an early ‘‘modern’’ Homo sapiens (Skhul 5), as well as of African and European middle Pleistocene Homo (Kabwe and Swanscombe), fall within the range of extant Homo and are significantly larger than those of Pan troglodytes. These anatomical findings suggest that the vocal capabilities of Neanderthals were the same as those of humans today. Furthermore, the vocal abilities of Australopithecus were not advanced significantly over those of chimpanzees whereas those of Homo may have been essentially modern by at least 400,000 years ago. Thus, human vocal abilities may have appeared much earlier in time than the first archaeological evidence for symbolic behavior} } @inproceedings{kazakov04EA, author={Dimitar Kazakov and Mark Bartlett}, title={Social Learning through Evolution of Language}, year={2004}, pages={397-408}, address={Marseilles, France}, editor={Pierre Liardet and et al.}, booktitle={Artificial Evolution: 6th International Conference}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kazakov04EA.html}, abstract={This paper presents an approach to simulating the evolution of language in which communication is viewed as an emerging phenomenon with both genetic and social components. A model is presented in which a population of agents is able to evolve a shared grammatical language from a purely lexical one, with critical elements of the faculty of language developed as a result of the need to navigate in and exchange information about the environment.} } @unpublished{ke07complexNetworkLanguage, author={Jinyun Ke}, title={Complex networks and human language}, year={2007}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke07complexNetworkLanguage.html}, abstract={This paper introduces how human languages can be studied in light of recent development of network theories. There are two directions of exploration. One is to study networks existing in the language system. Various lexical networks can be built based on different relationships between words, being semantic or syntactic. Recent studies have shown that these lexical networks exhibit small-world and scale-free features. The other direction of exploration is to study networks of language users (i.e. social networks of people in the linguistic community), and their role in language evolution. Social networks also show small-world and scale-free features, which cannot be captured by random or regular network models. In the past, computational models of language change and language emergence often assume a population to have a random or regular structure, and there has been little discussion how network structures may affect the dynamics. In the second part of the paper, a series of simulation models of diffusion of linguistic innovation are used to illustrate the importance of choosing realistic conditions of population structure for modeling language change. Four types of social networks are compared, which exhibit two categories of diffusion dynamics. While the questions about which type of networks are more appropriate for modeling still remains, we give some preliminary suggestions for choosing the type of social networks for modeling.} } @phdthesis{ke04phd, author={Jinyun Ke}, title={Self-organization and Language Evolution: System, Population and Individual}, year={2004}, school={Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke04phd.html}, abstract={This thesis proposes a framework adopting the self-organization theory for the study of language evolution. Self-organization explains collective behaviors and evolution with the observation that the patterns at the global level in a complex system are often properties spontaneously emergent from the numerous local interactions among the individual components, and they cannot be understood by only examining the individual components.

Language can be viewed as such emergent properties instead of products from some innate blueprint in humans. We highlight the importance of recognizing language at two distinctive but inter-dependent levels of existence, i.e. in the idiolect and in the communal language, and a self-organizing process existing at each of the two levels. It is necessary to clarify what phenomena are properties of the idiolects, and what properties are the collective behaviors at the population level.

In linguistics, however, very often an abstract language system is taken as the object of analysis. This level of analysis disregards the distinction between idiolect and communal language, and neglects the heterogeneous nature of language at both levels. As a consequence, explanations for observed patterns based on this abstract level of analysis are often inadequate. However, this is a necessary step for linguists to identify interesting phenomena in the first place. At this abstract level of analysis, the self-organization framework can also be applied. It is assumed that the abstract language system self-organizes. A study on homophony in languages is taken as an example to illustrate the analysis at this level. It is shown that the existence of homophony reflects several self-organization characteristics in a dynamic process of language evolution, such as the predictable degree of homophony, the disyllabification in Chinese dialects, the differentiation of homophone pairs in grammatical class.

We are further interested in how the self-organization is implemented. To answer this question, we need to look into the idiolects in this self-organizing process, to know how the idiolects are formed and affect each other. Language change provides an informative window in addressing these issues. Language change is the result of the collective behaviors of idiolects, even as it affects the idiolects. The heterogeneity among idiolects is exposed to the greatest extent in on-going changes.

An on-going sound change in Cantonese is taken as a case study to scrutinize the heterogeneity in the self-organizing processes. The fieldwork data reveal a large degree of variation both in the population (VT-I) and in the set of words (VT-II). Another type of variation (VT-III) is highlighted, that is, a word may also show variation within one single speaker. But this VT-III within speakers only exists in a proportion, but not all, of the words subject to the change. Also we find that if a speaker has some words consistently in the unchanged state and some words in the changed state, then this speaker must have some other words in the variation state. Most speakers show the existence of VT-III, but they vary in degree. The observed individual differences in the degree of VT-III suggest that the large heterogeneity may be not only accounted for by the variability of linguistic input, but also by individuals' different learning styles. We hypothesize two types of lexical learning styles, i.e. probabilistic and categorical learning. These differences in learning styles suggest that when we examine the agent's internal properties in the self-organization framework, it is not only necessary to examine the commonalities among agents, but also the differences among them.

In addition to empirical studies, this thesis employs computational modeling as a major tool for investigation, as modeling provides effective ways to test hypotheses beyond empirical studies, and suggests new questions. After a brief review of the modeling studies in the field, some models developed in this thesis for language origin and language change are reported.

The first model is to simulate the emergence of a consistent vocabulary from a set of random mappings between meanings and forms. It emphasizes the importance of implementing the actual process of interaction among agents, and the cumulative effect on agents' linguistic behaviors. The model suggests that the Saussurean sign with identical speaking and listening mappings may not be a biological predisposition from natural selection, but rather a result from the process of language learning and use. The process exhibits a phase transition from a long period of small oscillation to an abrupt convergence. Such phase transition is often observed in self-organizing systems.

The second model simulates language change as innovation diffusion, and examines the effects of various factors, including some concerning properties of agents and some affecting agents' interactions. By comparing the outcome under different conditions, the model illustrates the importance of incorporating realistic assumptions, such as finite population size, age-dependent propensity to change, different learning environment in a social network, etc. The model compares the dynamics of language change in different types of network structures and shows that in non-regular networks, the rate of innovation diffusion increases little as population size increases. The model also tests the effect of the two types of hypothesized learning styles, and shows that in a population with the presence of probabilistic learners, an innovation with a small advantage will easily spread into the population and lead to a change. This may explain why language changes are so frequent.

This thesis demonstrates that both empirical and modeling studies on language evolution can greatly benefit from adopting a self-organization framework. The convergence and interplay of the two lines of exploration, i.e. biological bases in agents and the long term effect of interactions among them, should bring us a deeper understanding of how language has evolved and is evolving.} } @article{ke08languageAndSocialNetwork, author={J-Y. Ke and T. Gong and W. S-Y. Wang}, title={Language change and social networks}, journal={Communications in Computational Physics}, year={2008}, volume={3}, number={4}, pages={935-949}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke08languageAndSocialNetwork.html}, keywords={Language change, social network, agent-based modeling}, abstract={Social networks play an important role in determining the dynamics and outcome of language change. Early empirical studies only examine small-scale local social networks, and focus on the relationship between the individual speakers' linguistic behaviors and their characteristics in the network. In contrast, computer models can provide an efficient tool to consider large-scale networks with different structures and discuss the long-term effect of individuals' learning and interaction on language change. This paper presents an agent-based computer model which simulates language change as a process of innovation diffusion, to address the threshold problem of language change. In the model, the population is implemented as a network of agents with age differences and different learning abilities, and the population is changing, with new agents born periodically to replace old ones. Four typical types of networks and their effect on the diffusion dynamics are examined. When the functional bias is sufficiently high, innovations always diffuse to the whole population in a linear manner in regular and small-world networks, but diffuse quickly in a sharp S-curve in random and scale-free networks. The success rate of diffusion is higher in regular and small-world networks than in random and scale-free networks. In addition, the model shows that as long as the population contains a small number of statistical learners who can learn and use both linguistic variants statistically according to the impact of these variants in the input, there is a very high probability for linguistic innovations with only small functional advantage to overcome the threshold of diffusion.} } @article{ke06emergentist, author={Jinyun Ke and John H. Holland}, title={Language Origin from an Emergentist Perspective}, journal={Applied Linguistics}, year={2006}, volume={27}, number={4}, pages={691-716}, doi={10.1093/applin/aml033}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke06emergentist.html}, abstract={In recent decades, there has been a surge of interest in the origin of language across a wide range of disciplines. Emergentism provides a new perspective to integrate investigations from different areas of study. This paper discusses how the study of language acquisition can contribute to the inquiry, in particular when computer modeling is adopted as the research methodology. An agent-based model is described as an illustration, which simulates how word order in a language could have emerged at the very beginning of language origin. Two important features of emergence, heterogeneity and nonlinearity, are demonstrated in the model, and their implications for applied linguistics are discussed.} } @article{ke02complexity, author={Jinyun Ke and James W. Minett and Ching-pong Au and William S-Y. Wang}, title={Self-organization and selection in the emergence of vocabulary}, journal={Complexity}, year={2002}, volume={7}, number={3}, pages={41-54}, doi={10.1002/cplx.10030}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke02complexity.html}, keywords={language evolution, emergence, vocabulary, self-organization, selection}, abstract={Human language may have started from a consistent set of mappings between meanings and signals. These mappings, referred to as the early vocabulary, are considered to be the results of conventions established among the agents of a population. In this study, we report simulation models for investigating how such conventions can be reached. We propose that convention is essentially the product of self-organization of the population through interactions among the agents; and that cultural selection is another mechanism that speeds up the establishment of convention. Whereas earlier studies emphasized either one or the other of these two mechanisms, our focus is to integrate them into one hybrid model. The combination of these two complementary mechanisms, i.e. self-organization and cultural selection, provides a plausible explanation for cultural evolution which progresses with high transmission rate. Furthermore, we observe that as the vocabulary tends to convergence there is a uniform tendency to exhibit a sharp phase transition.} } @article{ke_GAModelSound, author={Jinyun Ke and Mieko Ogura and William S-Y. Wang}, title={Modeling evolution of sound systems with genetic algorithm}, journal={Computational Linguistics}, year={2003}, volume={29}, number={1}, pages={1-18}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke_GAModelSound.html}, abstract={In this study, optimization models using Genetic Algorithms are proposed to study the conguration of vowels and tone systems. Similar to previous explanatory models that have been used to study vowel systems, certain criteria, which are assumed to be the principles governing the structure of sound systems, are used to predict optimal vowels and tone systems. In most of the earlier studies only one criterion has been considered. When two criteria are considered, they are often combined into one scalar function. The GA model proposed for the study of tone systems uses a Pareto-ranking method which is highly applicable for dealing with optimization problems having multiple criteria. For optimization of tone systems, perceptual contrast and markedness complexity are considered simultaneously. Although the consistency between the predicted systems and the observed systems is not as significant as those obtained for vowel systems, further investigation along this line is promising.} } @unpublished{ke06languageDevelopmentNetwork, author={Jinyun Ke and Y. Yao}, title={Analyzing language development from a network approach}, year={2006}, note={}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ke06languageDevelopmentNetwork.html}, abstract={In this paper we propose some new measures of language development using network analyses, which is inspired by the recent surge of interests in network studies of many real-world systems. Children's and care-takers' speech data from a longitudinal study are represented as a series of networks, word forms being taken as nodes and collocation of words as links. Measures on the properties of the networks, such as size, connectivity, hub and authority analyses, etc., allow us to make quantitative comparison so as to reveal different paths of development. For example, the asynchrony of development in network size and average degree suggests that children cannot be simply classified as early talkers or late talkers by one or two measures. Children follow different paths in a multi-dimensional space. They may develop faster in one dimension but slower in another dimension. The network approach requires little preprocessing of words and analyses on sentence structures, and the characteristics of words and their usage emerge from the network and are independent of any grammatical presumptions. We show that the change of the two articles 'the' and 'a' in their roles as important nodes in the network reflects the progress of children's syntactic development: the two articles often start in children's networks as hubs and later shift to authorities, while they are authorities constantly in the adult's networks. The network analyses provide a new approach to study language development, and at the same time language development also presents a rich area for network theories to explore.} } @book{keller94book, author={Rudi Keller}, title={On language change: The invisible hand in language}, year={1994}, publisher={Routledge, London}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/keller94book.html} } @article{kello04tics, author={Christopher T. Kello}, title={Characterizing the evolutionary dynamics of language}, journal={Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, year={2004}, volume={8}, number={9}, pages={392-394}, doi={10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.004}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kello04tics.html}, abstract={In a recent article Mitchener and Nowak present a model of the evolutionary dynamics of language. The model exhibits regular and chaotic oscillations in changes to the proportions of grammars spoken in a population over the course of evolution. These oscillations are within the purview of evolutionary game theory, but they suggest the lack of an evolutionarily stable strategy. Implications for self-organization across scales of adaptation are discussed.} } @book{kenneally07firstWordBOOK, author={Christine Kenneally}, title={The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language}, year={2007}, publisher={Viking Adult}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kenneally07firstWordBOOK.html} } @incollection{kessler06phylogeneticMethods, author={Brett Kessler and Annukka Lehtonen}, title={Multilateral Comparison and Significance Testing of the Indo-Uralic Question}, year={2006}, pages={33-}, chapter={3}, editor={Peter Forster and Colin Renfrew}, publisher={}, booktitle={Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kessler06phylogeneticMethods.html} } @article{kim95anEvolutionary, author={Yong-Gwan Kim and Joel Sobel}, title={An evolutionary approach to pre-play communication}, journal={Econometrica}, year={1995}, month={May}, volume={63}, pages={1181-1193}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kim95anEvolutionary.html} } @incollection{king99viewedFromUp, author={Barbara J. King}, title={Viewed from Up Close: Monkeys, Apes, and Language-Origins Theories}, year={1999}, chapter={2}, editor={Barbara J. King}, publisher={School of American Research Press}, booktitle={The Origins of Language: What Nonhuman Primates Can Tell Us}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/king99viewedFromUp.html} } @incollection{king99introduction, author={Barbara J. King}, title={Introduction: Primatological Perspectives on Language}, year={1999}, chapter={1}, editor={Barbara J. King}, publisher={School of American Research Press}, booktitle={The Origins of Language: What Nonhuman Primates Can Tell Us}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/king99introduction.html} } @inproceedings{king02tapirThe, author={Gary W. King and Marc S. Atkin and David Westbrook and Paul R. Cohen}, title={Tapir: the Evolution of an Agent Control Language}, year={2002}, address={Bologna, Italy}, booktitle={Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/king02tapirThe.html} } @incollection{kiparsky76historical, author={P. Kiparsky}, title={Historical linguistics and the origin of language}, year={1976}, editor={S. R. Harnad and H. D. Steklis and J. Lancaster}, publisher={}, booktitle={Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 280}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kiparsky76historical.html} } @incollection{kirby07iteratedLearning, author={S. Kirby}, title={The evolution of meaning-space structure through iterated learning}, year={2007}, pages={253-268}, editor={Lyon, C. and Nehaniv, C. and Cangelosi, A.}, publisher={Springer Verlag}, booktitle={Emergence of Communication and Language}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby07iteratedLearning.html}, abstract={In order to persist, language must be transmitted from generation to generation through a repeated cycle of use and learning. This process of iterated learning has been explored extensively in recent years using computational and mathematical models. These models have shown how compositional syntax provides language with a stability advantage and that iterated learning can induce linguistic adaptation. This paper presents an extension to previous idealised models to allow linguistic agents flexibility and choice in how they construct the semantics of linguistic expressions. This extension allows us to examine the complete dynamics of mixed compositional and holistic languages, look at how semantics can evolve culturally, and how communicative contexts impact on the evolution of meaning structure.} } @incollection{kirby07evolutionLanguage, author={S. Kirby}, title={The evolution of language}, year={2007}, pages={669-681}, editor={Dunbar, R. and Barrett, L.}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, booktitle={Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby07evolutionLanguage.html} } @article{kirby02naturalLanguage, author={Simon Kirby}, title={Natural Language from Artificial Life}, journal={Artificial Life}, year={2002}, volume={8}, number={2}, pages={185--215}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby02naturalLanguage.html}, keywords={Artificial Life, Language Evolution, Computer Simulation}, abstract={This paper aims to show that linguistics, in particular the study of the lexico-syntactic aspects of language, provides fertile ground for artificial life modelling. A survey of the models that have been developed over the last decade and a half is presented to demonstrate that ALife techniques have a lot to offer an explanatory theory of language. It is argued that this is because much of the structure of language is determined by the interaction of three complex adaptive systems: learning, culture and biological evolution. Computational simulation, informed by theoretical linguistics, is an appropriate response to the challenge of explaining real linguistic data in terms of the processes that underpin human language.} } @incollection{kirby02learningBottlenecks, author={S. Kirby}, title={Learning, Bottlenecks and the Evolution of Recursive Syntax}, year={2002}, chapter={6}, editor={Ted Briscoe}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby02learningBottlenecks.html} } @article{kirby01spontaneousEvolution, author={S. Kirby}, title={Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure: an iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity and irregularity}, journal={IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation}, year={2001}, volume={5}, number={2}, pages={102-110}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby01spontaneousEvolution.html}, keywords={cultural selection, evolution, grammar induction, iterated learning, language}, abstract={A computationally implemented model of the transmission of linguistic behavior over time is presented. In this iterated learning model (ILM), there is no biological evolution, natural selection, nor any measurement of the success of the agents at communicating (except for results-gathering purposes). Nevertheless, counter to intuition, significant evolution of linguistic behavior is observed. From an initially unstructured communication system (a protolanguage), a fully compositional syntactic meaning-string mapping emerges. Furthermore, given a nonuniform frequency distribution over a meaning space and a production mechanism that prefers short strings, a realistic distribution of string lengths and patterns of stable irregularity emerges, suggesting that the ILM is a good model for the evolution of some of the fundamental features of human language.} } @incollection{kirby00syntaxWithout, author={S. Kirby}, title={Syntax without Natural Selection: How compositionality emerges from vocabulary in a population of learners}, year={2000}, pages={303-323}, editor={C. Knight}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby00syntaxWithout.html}, keywords={evolution, iterated learning, computer simulation, language evolution, syntax, selection} } @inproceedings{kirby99learningBottlenecks, author={S. Kirby}, title={Learning, Bottlenecks and Infinity: a working model of the evolution of syntactic communication}, year={1999}, editor={K. Dautenhahn and C. Nehaniv}, booktitle={Proceedings of the AISB'99 Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99learningBottlenecks.html} } @book{kirby99functionSelection2, author={S. Kirby}, title={Function, Selection and Innateness: the Emergence of Language Universals}, year={1999}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, note={The full-text is only a sample (chapter 1: A Puzzle of Fit).}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99functionSelection2.html} } @inproceedings{kirby99syntaxOut, author={S. Kirby}, title={Syntax out of Learning: the cultural evolution of structured communication in a population of induction algorithms}, year={1999}, pages={694-703}, editor={D. Floreano and J.-D. Nicoud and F. Mondada}, booktitle={ECAL99}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99syntaxOut.html} } @techreport{kirby98languageEvolution, author={S. Kirby}, title={Language evolution without natural selection: From vocabulary to syntax in a population of learners}, year={1998}, institution={Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit, University of Edinburgh}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby98languageEvolution.html}, keywords={language evolution, computer simulation} } @incollection{kirby98fitnessAnd, author={S. Kirby}, title={Fitness and the selective adaptation of language}, year={1998}, pages={359-383}, address={Cambridge}, editor={Hurford, J. R. and Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Knight C.}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, booktitle={Approaches to the Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby98fitnessAnd.html}, keywords={language evolution, universals, natural selection, formalism, functionalism} } @article{kirby97competingMotivations, author={S. Kirby}, title={Competing motivations and emergence: explaining implicational hierarchies}, journal={Language Typology}, year={1997}, volume={1}, number={1}, pages={5--32}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby97competingMotivations.html} } @phdthesis{kirby99functionSelection, author={S. Kirby}, title={Function, Selection and Innateness: the Emergence of Language Universals}, year={1996}, school={Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh}, url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99functionSelection.html}, abstract={A central topic for linguistic theory is the degree to which the communicative function of language influences its form. In particular many so-called functional explanations argue that cross-linguistic constraints can be explained with reference to pressures imposed by processing. In apparent opposition to this is the innatist stance which claims that universals are properties imposed by an autonomous language module. This thesis approaches the issues raised by this conflict by examining the nature of the link between processing and universals. The starting point for the work, then, is not the discovery of new universals nor new explanations, but the question ``exactly how do processing theories that have been proposed give rise to the universals that they claim to explain?'' Careful investigation of this problem proves to be fruitful in highlighting the roles of innateness and function in explaining universals.

The methodology chosen involves computational simulations of language as a complex adaptive system, in which language universals appear as emergent propert