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Briscoe, E. J. (1998) Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Coevolution of Language and of the Language Acquisition Device. In H. van Halteren and et al., editors, Proceedings of Eighth Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Conference.
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Paper at a Glance 

Language as a Complex Adaptive System:
Coevolution of Language and of the Language
Acquisition Device
Ted Briscoe
ejb@cl.cam.ac.uk
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
Pembroke Street
Cambridge CB2 3QG, UK
July 1, 1998
Abstract An account of parameter setting during grammatical acquisition is pre­ sented in terms of Generalized Categorial Grammar embedded in a multiple default inheritance hierarchy, providing a natural partial ordering on the set­ ting of parameters (Briscoe, 1997a). Experiments reported show that several experimentally effective learners can be defined in this framework capable of reliably acquiring a grammar from a sequence of triggers drawn from one of 70 full languages (or the 200+ more restricted subset languages of these full languages). Evolutionary computational simulations of evolving populations of such language learners/users suggest that: 1) languages evolve towards greater learnability, interpretability and/or expressivity; 2) learning procedures evolve towards more efficient variants depending on the linguistic environment of adaptation. The reciprocal evolution of language learning procedures and of language creates a genuinely coevolutionary dynamic, despite the relative speed of linguistic selection for language variants compared to natural selection for variant language learning procedures.
1 Theoretical Background It is now widely accepted that language acquisition is guided by an innate language learning procedure and a partial innate specification of the form of language. Lan­ guage acquisition by children is a near­universal feat, where (partial) failure appears to correlate more with genetic deficits (e.g. Gopnik, 1994) or with an almost com­ plete lack of linguistic input during the critical period (e.g. Curtiss, 1988), than with measures of general intelligence (e.g. Smith and Tsimpli, 1991) or the quality of the learning enviroment (e.g. Ochs, 1982). Pinker and Bloom (1990) have argued for an adaptationist account ...
BibTex
@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}
}

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