Modeling the cultural evolution of language

Physics of Life Reviews

Volumn 8, Issue 4, 2011, Pages 339-356

  Steels, Luc ^a,b  

^a Barcelona Biomedical Research Park   (Spain)

^b SONY COMPUTER SCIENCE LABORATORY   (France)

Author keywords

Biolinguistics; Cultural evolution; Evolutionary linguistics; Language evolution; Semiotic dynamics

Indexed keywords

AGENT BASED; BIOLINGUISTICS; COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION; CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS; CULTURAL EVOLUTION; EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES; GENETIC EVOLUTION; HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURES; HUMAN LANGUAGE; INNATE STRUCTURE; LANGUAGE EVOLUTION; ROBOTIC EXPERIMENTS;

COMPUTER SIMULATION;

LINGUISTICS;

ANIMAL; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; HUMAN; LANGUAGE; LINGUISTICS; REVIEW; THEORETICAL MODEL;

ANIMALS; CULTURAL EVOLUTION; HUMANS; LANGUAGE; LINGUISTICS; MODELS, THEORETICAL;

EID: 84857139780     PISSN: 15710645     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2011.10.014     Document Type: Review

References (120)

1. Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive bases 1998, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. J. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy, C. Knight (Eds.).
2. Simulating the evolution of language 2002, Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, USA. A. Cangelosi, D. Parisi (Eds.).
3. Linguistic evolution through language acquisition: formal and computational models 2002, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. T. Briscoe (Ed.).
4. Minett J.W., Wang W.S.-Y. Language acquisition, change and emergence: essays in evolutionary linguistics 2005, City University of Hong Kong Press, Hong Kong.
5. Emergence of language and communication. Lecture notes in computer science 2007, Springer Verlag, Berlin. C. Lyon, C. Nehaniv, A. Cangelosi (Eds.).
6. Croft W. Evolutionary linguistics. Annual Review of Anthropology 2008, 37:219-234.
7. Bickerton D., Szathmary E. Biological foundations and origin of syntax. Strungmann forum reports 2009, vol. 3. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
8. Dessalles J.-L. Why we talk. The evolutionary origins of language 2007, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
9. The evolutionary emergence of language: social function and the origins of linguistic form 2000, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. C. Knight, J. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy (Eds.).
10. Knight C., Power C., Watts I. The human symbolic revolution: a Darwinian account. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2001, 5(1):75-114.
11. Heine B., Kuteva T. The genesis of grammar. A reconstruction 2008, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
12. Jablonka E., Lamb M. Evolution in four dimensions. Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life 2005, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
13. Bickerton D. The language bioprogram hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1984, 7(2):173-222.
14. Pinker S., Bloom P. Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1990, 13(4):707-784.
15. Stromswold K. The heritability of language: a review and metaanalysis of twin, adoption, and linkage studies. Language 2001, 77(4):647-723.
16. Nyogi P., Berwick R. Evolutionary consequences of language learning. Linguistics and Philosophy 1997, 20:697-719.
17. Nowak M.A., Plotkin J.B., Krakauer D.C. The evolutionary language game. Journal of Theoretical Biology 1999, 200:147-162.
18. Heine B. The cognitive foundations of grammar 2001, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
19. Tomasello M. Constructing a language. A usage based theory of language acquisition 2003, Harvard University Press.
20. Mufwene S. Competition and selection in language evolution. Selection 2001, 3(1):45-56.
21. Steels L. The emergence and evolution of linguistic structure: from lexical to grammatical communication systems. Connection Science 2005, 17(3):213-230.
22. Di Sciullo M., Boeckx C. The biolinguistic enterprise. New perspectives on the evolution and nature of the human language faculty 2011, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
23. Gong T. Simulating the coevolution of compositionality and word order regularity. Interaction Studies 2011, 12(1):63-106. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/gong2011simulating.html, 10.1075/is.12.1.03gon.
24. Premack D. 'Gavagai!' or the future history of the animal language controversy. Cognition 1985, 19:207-296.
25. Teramitsu A.P.I., Torrisi S., White S. Striatal FOXP2 is actively regulated during songbird sensorimotor learning. PloS One 2010, 5(1):207-296.
26. Bufill E.C. Are symbolic behaviour and neuroplasticity an example of gene-culture coevolution?. Rev Neurol 2000, 39(1):48-55.
27. Dorus S., et al. Accelerated evolution of nervous system genes in the origin of homo sapiens. Cell 2004, 119:1027-1040.
28. Gopnik M. Feature-blind grammar and dysphasia. Nature 1990, 344:715.
29. Lai C.S., Fisher S.E., Hurst J., Vargha-Khadem F., Monaco A. A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 2001, 413:519-523.
30. Enard W., et al. Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language. Nature 2002, 418:869-872.
31. Marcus G.F., Fisher S.E. FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2003, 7:257-262.
32. Knopka G., et al. Human-specific transcriptional regulation of CNS development genes by FOXP2. Nature 2009, 462:213-217.
33. Fitch T. The evolution of language: a comparative review. Biology and Philosophy 2005, 20:193-230.
34. Arbib M. From monkey-like action recognition to human language: an evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2005, 28:105-167.
35. Fitch W., Hauser M. Computational constraints on syntactic processing in a non human primate. Science 2004, 303:377-380.
36. Cavalli-Sforza L., Feldman M. Cultural transmission and evolution: a quantitative approach 1981, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
37. d'Errico F., Hombert J.-M. Becoming Eloquent. Advances in the emergence of language, human cognition, and modern cultures 2009, John Benjamins Pub. Co.
38. Dediu D., Ladd D. Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and microcephalin. PNAS 2007, 104(26):10944-10949.
39. Stout D., Chaminade T. The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making. Neuropsychologia 2007, 45:1091-1100.
40. Pulvermuller F., Hauk O., Nikulin V.V., Ilmoniemi R.J. Functional links between motor and language systems. European Journal of Neuroscience 2005, 21(3):793-797.
41. Thornton R., Wexler K., Principle B. VP ellipsis and interpretation in child grammar 1999, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
42. Nowak M.A., Komarova N.L., Niyogi P. Evolution of universal grammar. Science 2001, 291:114-118.
43. Evolution of communication and language in embodied agents 2010, Springer-Verlag, Berlin. S. Nolfi, M. Miroli (Eds.).
44. Cangelosi A., Parisi D. The emergence of a 'language' in an evolving population of neural networks. Connection Science 1998, 10(2):83-97.
45. Smith K., Kirby S., Brighton H. Iterated learning: a framework for the emergence of language. Artificial Life 2003, 9(4):371-386.
46. Dowman M., Kirby S., Griffiths T.L. Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. The evolution of language: proceedings of the 6th international conference on the evolution of language 2006, 230-238. World Scientific Press. A. Cangelosi, A. Smith, K. Smith (Eds.).
47. Smith K., Brighton H., Kirby S. Complex systems in language evolution: the cultural emergence of compositional structure. Advances in Complex Systems 2003, 6(4):537-558. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/smith03complexSystem.html, 10.1142/S0219525903001055.
48. Scott-Phillips T., Kirby S. Language evolution in the laboratory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2010, 9(14):411-417.
49. The world atlas of language structures 2005, Oxford University Press, Oxford. M. Haspelmath, M.S. Dryer, D. Gil, B. Comrie (Eds.).
50. Stefanowitsch A., Gries S. Collostructions: investigating the interaction of words and constructions. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 2003, 2(8):209-243.
51. Mair C. Corpus linguistics and grammaticalization theory: beyond statistics and frequency? Corpus linguistics and grammaticalization theory. Corpus approaches to grammaticalization in English 2004, 121-150. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. H. Lindquist, C. Mair (Eds.).
52. Haspelmath M. Pre-established categories don't exist. Linguistic Typology 2007, 11(1):119-132.
53. Evans N., Levinson S. The myth of language universals: language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2009, 32(5):472-484.
54. Dunn M., Greenhill S.J., Levinson S., Russell D. Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals. Nature 2011, 473:79-82.
55. Heine B., Kuteva T. World lexicon of grammaticalization 2002, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.
56. Approaches to grammaticalization, vol. 1. Typological studies in language 1991, vol. 19. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. E. Traugott, B. Heine (Eds.).
57. Approaches to grammaticalization, vol. 2. Typological studies in language 1991, vol. 19. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. E.C. Traugott, B. Heine (Eds.).
58. Steels L. A self-organizing spatial vocabulary. Artificial Life 1996, 2(3):319-332.
59. Steels L. Language re-entrance and the 'inner voice'. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2003, 10(4-5):173-185.
60. Steels L., Vogt P. Grounding adaptive language games in robotic agents. Proceedings of the 4th European conference on artificial life 1997, 473-484. The MIT Press, Brighton, UK. P. Husbands, I. Harvey (Eds.).
61. Steels L., Kaplan F. Bootstrapping grounded word semantics. Linguistic evolution through language acquisition: formal and computational models 2002, 53-73. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. T. Briscoe (Ed.).
62. Steels L., Kaplan F. AIBO's first words: the social learning of language and meaning. Evolution of Communication 2001, 4(1):3-32.
63. Steels L., Spranger M. The robot in the mirror. Connection Science 2008, 20(2-3):337-358.
64. Steels L., Belpaeme T. Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: a case study for colour. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2005, 28:469-529.
65. Steels L., Loetzsch M. Perspective alignment in spatial language. Spatial language and dialogue 2008, Oxford University Press. K.R. Coventry, T. Tenbrink, J.A. Bateman (Eds.).
66. Bleys J., Steels L. Linguistic selection of language strategies: a case study for colour. LNCS 2009, Springer, Berlin.
67. Spranger M., Pauw S., Loetzsch M. Open-ended semantics co-evolving with spatial language. The evolution of language (EVOLANG 8) 2010, 297-304. World Scientific, Singapore. A. Smith, M. Schouwstra, B. de Boer, K. Smith (Eds.).
68. Steels L., Wellens P. How grammar emerges to dampen combinatorial search in parsing. LNAI 2006, vol. 4211:76-88. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. P. Vogt, Y. Sugita, E. Tuci, C. Nehaniv (Eds.).
69. Steels L. What triggers the emergence of grammar? In: Cangelosi A, Nehaniv C, editors. AISB'05: Proceedings of EELC'05, AISB, Hatfield; 2005. p. 143-50.
70. Spranger M., Pauw S., Loetzsch M. Open-ended semantics co-evolving with spatial language. The evolution of language (EVOLANG 8) 2010, World Scientific, Singapore. A. Smith, M. Schouwstra, B. de Boer, K. Smith (Eds.).
71. Galantucci B. An experimental study of the emergence of human communication systems. Cognitive Science 2005, 29(5):737-767.
72. Healey P., Swoboda N., Umata I., King J. Graphical language games: interactional constraints on representational form. Cognitive Science 2007, 2(31):285-309.
73. Garrod S., et al. Can iterated learning explain the emergence of graphical symbols?. Interaction Studies 2010, 1(11):33-50.
74. Goldberg A.E. Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2003, 7(5):219-224.
75. Maclaury R. From brightness to hue: an explanatory model of color-category evolution. Current Antropology 1992, 33(2):137-187.
76. Diessel H. Demonstratives: form, function, and grammaticalization 1999, John Benjamins Pub. Co., Amsterdam.
77. Van Kemenade A. Syntactic case and morphological case in the history of English 1987, Forist Publications, Dordrecht.
78. Bailey C.-J. Variation and linguistic theory 1973, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington.
79. Holland J. Complex adaptive systems. Daedalus 1992, 121(1):17-30.
80. Christensen C. The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail 1997, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.
81. Fernández-Ordóñez I. Leísmo, laísmo, loísmo: Estado de la cuestión. Gramática descriptiva de la lengua Española, vol I 1999, 1319-1390. RAE - Espasa Calpe, Madrid. I. Bosque, V. Demonte (Eds.).
82. Steels L. The recruitment theory of language origins. The emergence of communication and language 2007, 129-151. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. C. Lyon, C. Nehaniv, A. Cangelosi (Eds.).
83. Batali J. Computational simulations of the emergence of grammar. Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive bases 1998, 405-426. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/batali98computationalSimulations.html, J.R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy, C. Knight (Eds.).
84. van Trijp R. Grammaticalization and semantic maps: evidence from artificial language evolution. Linguistic Discovery 2010, 8(1):310-326. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/vantrijp10linguisticDiscovery.html.
85. van Trijp R. Strategy competition in the evolution of pronouns: a case-study of Spanish leismo, laismo and loismo. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Evolution of Language 2010, 336-343. World Scientific. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/vantrijp2010evolangStrategy.html, 10.1142/9789814295222_0043. A.D.M. Smith, M. Schouwstra, B. de Boer, K. Smith (Eds.).
86. Pauw S., Hilferty J. The emergence of quantification. Experiments in cultural language evolution 2011, John Benjamins, Amsterdam. L. Steels (Ed.).
87. Beuls K., Hoefer S. Simulating the emergence of grammatical agreement in multi-agent language games. Proceedings of the nineteenth international joint conference on artificial intelligence, IJCAI 2005 2011, 61-66. AAAI Press, San Francisco, CA. T. Walsh (Ed.).
88. Bleys J., Steels L. Linguistic selection of language strategies: a case study for color. LNCS 2011, vol. 5777:61-66. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. G. Kampis, I. Karsai, E. Szathmary (Eds.).
89. Steels L. A self-organizing spatial vocabulary. Artificial Life 1995, 2(3):319-332.
90. Prigogine I., Nicolis G. Self-organization in non-equilibrium systems 1977, Wiley, New York.
91. Camazine S., Deneubourg J.-L., Franks N., Sneyd J., Bonabeau E., Theraulaz G. Self-organization in biological systems 2001, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
92. Loreto V., Steels L. Social dynamics: emergence of language. Nature Physics 2007, 3:758-760. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/loreto07socialDynamics.html, 10.1038/nphys770.
93. Castellano C., Fortunato S., Loreto V. Statistical physics of social dynamics. Review of Modern Physics 2009, 81:591-646.
94. Garrod S., Doherty G. Conversation, co-ordination and convention: an empirical investigation of how groups establish linguistic conventions. Cognition 1994, 53(3):181-215.
95. Pickering M., Garrod S. Alignment as the basis for successful communication. Research on Language and Computation 2006, 4:203-228.
96. Galantucci B. An experimental study of the emergence of human communication systems. Cognitive Science 1995, 29(5):737-767.
97. Steels L. A self-organizing spatial vocabulary. Artificial Life 1995, 2(3):319-332.
98. Baronchelli A, Felici M, Loreto V, Caglioti E, Steels L. Sharp transition towards shared vocabularies in multi-agent systems. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment P06014.
99. Steels L., McIntyre A. Spatially distributed naming games. Advances in Complex Systems 1999, 1(4):301-323.
100. De Beule J., de Vylder B., Belpaeme T. A cross-situational learning algorithm for damping homonymy in the guessing game. ALIFE X. Tenth international conference on the simulation and synthesis of living systems 2006, 3-7. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
101. Wellens P., Loetzsch M., Steels L. Flexible word meaning in embodied agents. Connection Science 2008, 20(2):173-191.
102. De Vylder B., Tuyls K. How to reach linguistic consensus: a proof of convergence for the naming game. Journal of Theoretical Biology 2006, 242(4):818-831.
103. Dall'Asta L., Baronchelli A., Barrat A., Loreto V. Nonequilibrium dynamics of language games on complex networks. Physical Review E 2006, 74(3):036105.
104. Liu R., Jia C., Yang H., Wang B. Naming game on small-world networks with geographical effects. Physica A 2009, 388:3615-3620.
105. Talmy L. Toward a cognitive semantics. Typology and process in concept structuring 2000, vol. 2. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
106. Regier T., Kay P. Language, thought, and color: Whorf was half right. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2009, 13:439-446.
107. Puglisi A., Baronchelli A., Loreto V. Cultural route to the emergence of linguistic categories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2008, 105(23):7936-7940.
108. Spranger L. The co-evolution of spatial terms and spatial categories. Experiments in cultural language evolution 2011, John Benjamins Co, Amsterdam. L. Steels (Ed.).
109. Steels L., Spranger M. The robot in the mirror. Connection Science 2008, 20(2-3):337-358.
110. van Trijp R. The emergence of semantic roles in fluid construction grammar. The evolution of language. Proceedings of the 7th international conference (EVOLANG 7) 2008, 346-353. World Scientific Press, Singapore. A.D. Smith, K. Smith, R. Ferrer i Cancho (Eds.).
111. Wray A. Protolanguage as a holistic system for social interaction. Language & Communication 1998, 18:47-67.
112. Smith K. Is a holistic protolanguage a plausible precursor to language? A test case for a modern evolutionary linguistics. Interaction Studies 2008, 9(1):1-17. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/ksmith08holisticProtolanguage.html, 10.1075/is.9.1.08smi.
113. Beule J.D., Bergen B.K. On the emergence of compositionality. Proceedings of the 6th international conference on the evolution of language 2006, 35-42. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/debeule06compositionality.html.
114. Vogt P. The emergence of compositional structures in perceptually grounded language games. Artificial Intelligence 2005, 167(1-2):206-242. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/vogt05compositionalGrounded_AIJ.html, 10.1016/j.artint.2005.04.010.
115. Daelemans W., Van den Bosch A. Memory-based language processing. Studies in natural language processing 2005, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
116. Usage-based models of language 2000, Chicago University Press, Chicago. M. Barlow, S. Kemmer (Eds.).
117. Hashimoto T., Ikegami T. Emergence of net-grammar in communicating agents. Biosystems 1996, 38(1):1-14. http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hashimoto96emergenceOf.html, 10.1016/0303-2647(95)01563-9.
118. Steels L., van Trijp R., Wellens P. Multi-level selection in the emergence of language systematicity. LNAI 2007, vol. 4648:421-434. Springer, Berlin. F. Almeida e Costa, L.M. Rocha, E. Costa, I. Harvey (Eds.).
119. Steels L. The emergence of grammar in communicating autonomous robotic agents. Proceedings of the 14th European conference on artificial intelligence (ECAI) 2000, 764-769. IOS Press, Berlin, Germany. W. Horn (Ed.).
120. Spranger M. A basic emergent grammar for space. Experiments in cultural language evolution 2011, John Benjamins, Amsterdam. L. Steels (Ed.).