Luc Steels - 1997 - Language Learning and Language Contact

Steels, L. (1997) Language Learning and Language Contact. In Daelemans, W. and Van den Bosch, A. and Weijters, A., editors, Proceedings of the workshop on Empirical Approaches to Language Aquisition, pages 11--24. Prague.

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Paper at a Glance

1 Introduction
Language Learning and Language Contact
VUB Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Pleinlaan 2 1050 Brussels
email: steels@arti.vub.ac.be
and Sony Computer Science Laboratory 6 Rue Amyot F75005 Paris, France The evolution of language can only be explained when we take a language learning process into account which is necessarily imper fect due to weak data and the limits of induction. Thus language change yields clues on what the learning processes are and conversely hypothe sised learning processes should predict possible language changes. This paper considers this issue by studying lexicon formation processes. It is shown how a process for the construction and acquisition of a lexicon in a single agent leads to various dynamical phenomena when applied to a population of agents with varying degrees of contact. Luc Steels It is a fact that natural languages evolve at all levels: New sounds may get in troduced or the sound system of a language may start shifting, new words and meanings may enter in the lexicon or existing meanings may expand or contract, new syntactic categories may emerge, syntactic structures may shift, features ex pressed through morphology may shift to a syntactic expression, etc. Sometimes these changes are very rapid, particularly when a new `creole' language is formed [3]. There may also be periods of relative stability. All these changes take place against a background of continuously changing populations (the linguistic com munity is in constant flux due to the in and outflow of members) and changing environments and thus new sources of meaning (new artefacts, new institutions, new types of social relations, etc.). As long as we restrict linguistic investigations to a single (idealised) speaker hearer in a homogeneous language community who knows and speaks the lan guage perfectly [1], it is a puzzle why languages change. It is even more a puzzle if we assume that language is to a large extent innate, which implies that ...

BibTex

@inproceedings{steels97languageLearning,
  author={L. Steels},
  title={Language Learning and Language Contact},
  year={1997},
  pages={11-24},
  address={Prague},
  editor={Daelemans, W. and Van den Bosch, A. and Weijters, A.},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the workshop on Empirical Approaches to Language Aquisition},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/steels97languageLearning.html},
  keywords={language contact, evolutionary linguistics,language games, agents, simulation, language learning, evolutionary linguistics}
}

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