COMPLEX SYSTEMS IN LANGUAGE EVOLUTION: THE CULTURAL EMERGENCE OF COMPOSITIONAL STRUCTURE

2003 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 537-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENNY SMITH ◽  
HENRY BRIGHTON ◽  
SIMON KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Iterated Learning

Language arises from the interaction of three complex adaptive systems — biological evolution, learning, and culture. We focus here on cultural evolution, and present an Iterated Learning Model of the emergence of compositionality, a fundamental structural property of language. Our main result is to show that the poverty of the stimulus available to language learners leads to a pressure for linguistic structure. When there is a bottleneck on cultural transmission, only a language which is generalizable from sparse input data is stable. Language itself evolves on a cultural time-scale, and compositionality is language's adaptation to stimulus poverty.

scholarly journals Constructing a consensus on language evolution? Convergences and differences between biolinguistic and usage-based approaches

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pleyer ◽  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Evo Devo

Two of the main theoretical approaches to the evolution of language are biolinguistics and usage-based approaches. Both are often conceptualized as belonging to seemingly irreconcilable ‘camps.’ Biolinguistic approaches assume that the ability to acquire language is based on a language-specific genetic foundation. Usage-based approaches, on the other hand, stress the importance of domain-general cognitive capacities, social cognition, and interaction. However, there have been a number of recent developments in both paradigms which suggest that biolinguistic and usage-based approaches are actually moving closing together. For example, theoretical advancements such as evo-devo and complex adaptive systems theory have gained traction in the language sciences, leading to changed conceptions of issues like the relative influence of “nature” and “nurture.” In this paper, we outline points of convergence between current minimalist biolinguistic and usage-based approaches regarding four contentious issues: a) modularity and domain-specificity, b) innateness and development, c) cultural and biological evolution, d) knowledge of language and its description. We show that across both paradigms, researchers have come to increasingly embrace more complex views of these issues. They also have come to appreciate the view that biological and cultural evolution are closely intertwined, which leads to an increased amount of common ground between minimalist biolinguistics and usage-based approaches.

scholarly journals Compositional Hierarchical Structure Evolves through Cultural Transmission: An Experimental Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saldana ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Robert Truswell ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Linguistics ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Iterated Learning

AbstractCompositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.

Natural Language From Artificial Life

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Computational Simulation ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Explanatory Theory ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Systems Learning ◽  
Theory Of Language

This article aims to show that linguistics, in particular the study of the lexico-syntactic aspects of language, provides fertile ground for artificial life modeling. 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.

scholarly journals Language change and language evolution: Cousins, siblings, twins?

Glottotheory ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross Fertilization

AbstractThe relationship between “language change” and “language evolution” has recently become subject to some debate regarding the scope of both concepts. It has been claimed that while the latter used to refer to the language origins in the first place, both terms can now, to a certain extent, be used synonymously. In this paper, I argue that this can partly be explained by parallel developments both in historical linguistics and in the field of language evolution research that have led to a considerable amount of convergence between both fields. Both have adopted usage-based approaches and data-driven methods, which entails similar research questions and similar perspectives on the phenomena under investigation. This has ramifications for current models and theories of language change (or evolution). Two approaches in particular, the concept of complex adaptive systems and construction grammar, have been combined in integrated approaches that seek to explain both language emergence and language change over historical time. I discuss the potential and limitations of this integrated approach, and I argue that there is still some unexplored potential for cross-fertilization.

scholarly journals Compositional hierarchical structure evolves through cultural transmission: an experimental study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Saldana ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Rob Truswell ◽  
Kenny Smith
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Linguistics ◽  
Artificial Language Learning ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Iterated Learning

Compositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.

Why religion is better conceived as a complex system than a norm-enforcing institution

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Sosis ◽  
Jordan Kiper
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Complex Adaptive

AbstractAlthough religions, as Smaldino demonstrates, provide informative examples of culturally evolved group-level traits, they are more accurately analyzed as complex adaptive systems than as norm-enforcing institutions. An adaptive systems approach to religion not only avoids various shortcomings of institutional approaches, but also offers additional explanatory advantages regarding the cultural evolution of group-level traits that emerge from religion.

scholarly journals Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Introductory Paper

Abstract Diachronic studies have played an increasingly important role in recent Cognitive Linguistics. This introductory paper provides an overview of some major lines of research in this field, starting with the inherently panchronic approach that characterizes most flavors of usage-based theory from Cognitive Grammar to recent complex adaptive systems approaches. In particular, the “constructionist turn” and the “quantitative turn” in Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics are discussed in detail. Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics is introduced as a multi-faceted, dynamic framework that aims at providing a holistic and nuanced picture of the complex interplay between language, cognition, and cultural evolution. In addition, this paper introduces the contributions to the present volume in some detail and discusses their relation to current research trends and paradigms within the broader framework of Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics.

scholarly journals The Hierarchical Organization of Syntax

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babak Ravandi ◽  
Valentina Concu
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Zipf’S Law ◽  
Zipf's Law ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Complex Adaptive

Abstract Hierarchies are the backbones of complex systems and their analysis allows for a deeper understanding of their structure and how they evolve. We consider languages to be also complex adaptive systems. Hence, we analyzed the hierarchical organization of historical syntactic networks from German that were created from a corpus of texts from the 11th to 17th centuries. We tracked the emergence of syntactic structures in these networks and mapped them to specific communicative needs. We named these emerging structures communicative hierarchies. We hypothesise that the communicative needs of speakers are the organizational force of syntax. We propose that the emergence of these multiple communicative hierarchies is what shapes syntax, and that these hierarchies are the prerequisite to the Zipf's law. The emergence of communicative hierarchies indicates that the objective of language evolution is not only to increase the efficiency of transferring information. Language is also evolving to increase our capacity to communicate more sophisticated abstractions as we advance as a species.

scholarly journals Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics: Past, present and future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Complex Adaptive Systems ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
Introductory Paper

Diachronic studies have played an increasingly important role in recent Cognitive Linguistics. This introductory paper provides an overview of some major lines of research in this field, starting with the inherently panchronic approach that characterizes most flavors of usage-based theory from Cognitive Grammar to recent complex adaptive systems approaches. In particular, the “constructionist turn” and the “quantitative turn” in Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics are discussed in detail. Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics is introduced as a multi-faceted, dynamic framework that aims at providing a holistic and nuanced picture of the complex interplay between language, cognition, and cultural evolution. In addition, this paper introduces the contributions to the present volume in some detail and discusses their relation to current research trends and paradigms within the broader framework of Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics.

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