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| 2001 | - | Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure: an iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity and irregularity - Kirby | :: | 96 |
| 2001 | - | Evolution of universal grammar - Nowak,Komarova,Niyogi | :: | 90 |
| 2002 | - | Learning, Bottlenecks and the Evolution of Recursive Syntax - Kirby | :: | 86 |
| 2000 | - | Syntax without Natural Selection: How compositionality emerges from vocabulary in a population of learners - Kirby | :: | 81 |
| 2000 | - | The evolution of syntactic communication - Nowak,Plotkin,Jansen | :: | 81 |
| 1999 | - | Function, Selection and Innateness: the Emergence of Language Universals - Kirby | :: | 76 |
| 2002 | - | The negotiation and acquisition of recursive grammars as a result of competition among exemplars - Batali | :: | 66 |
| 1998 | - | The origins of syntax in visually grounded robotic agents - Steels | :: | 56 |
| 1980 | - | Rules and representations - Chomsky | :: | 55 |
| 1985 | - | Culture and the evolutionary process - Boyd,Richerson | :: | 40 |
| 1997 | - | Constructing and sharing perceptual distinctions - Steels | :: | 31 |
| 2001 | - | Establishing Communication Systems without Explicit Meaning Transmission - Smith | :: | 28 |
| 1999 | - | The cultural origins of human cognition - Tomasello | :: | 26 |
| 1993 | - | Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans - Dunbar | :: | 22 |
| 2001 | - | The Survival of the Smallest: Stability Conditions for the Cultural Evolution of Compositional Language - Brighton,Kirby | :: | 22 |
| 1997 | - | Machine learning - Mitchell | :: | 21 |
| 1999 | - | Syntax as an emergent characteristic of the evolution of semantic complexity - Schoenemann | :: | 18 |
| 2002 | - | Empirical assessment of stimulus poverty arguments - Pullum,Scholz | :: | 13 |
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| 2000 | - | Effects of Compression on Language Evolution - Teal,Taylor | :: | 11 |
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| 1999 | - | Made to measure: Ecological rationality in structured environments - Bullock,Todd | :: | 4 |
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