Coevolution of Lexical Meaning and Pragmatic Use

Brochhagen, Thomas; Franke, Michael; Rooij, Robert van

doi:10.1111/cogs.12681

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…Although the learner/listener does use their model of the speaker's perspective when interpreting utterances, the speaker doesn't make use of this fact when determining which signal to use to convey a given referential intention. The latter could be achieved by adding an extra layer of pragmatic communication on top, for instance using the rational speech act model (Goodman and Frank 2016) (see Brochhagen et al 2018, for a model that combines iterated language learning with cutural transmission of pragmatic communication). Based on the findings of Brochhagen et al (2018), we predict that adding such pragmatic reasoning skills could change what exactly constitutes a 'useful language' under the two selection pressures we explored here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter could be achieved by adding an extra layer of pragmatic communication on top, for instance using the rational speech act model (Goodman and Frank 2016) (see Brochhagen et al 2018, for a model that combines iterated language learning with cutural transmission of pragmatic communication). Based on the findings of Brochhagen et al (2018), we predict that adding such pragmatic reasoning skills could change what exactly constitutes a 'useful language' under the two selection pressures we explored here. Certainly under a pressure for successful communication, we would expect that pragmatic agents can make do with somewhat more ambiguous languages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

2020

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Several evolutionary accounts of human social cognition posit that language has co-evolved with the sophisticated mindreading abilities of modern humans. It has also been argued that these mindreading abilities are the product of cultural, rather than biological, evolution. Taken together, these claims suggest that the evolution of language has played an important role in the cultural evolution of human social cognition. Here we present a new computational model which formalises the assumptions that underlie this hypothesis, in order to explore how language and mindreading interact through cultural evolution. This model treats communicative behaviour as an interplay between the context in which communication occurs, an agent’s individual perspective on the world, and the agent’s lexicon. However, each agent’s perspective and lexicon are private mental representations, not directly observable to other agents. Learners are therefore confronted with the task of jointly inferring the lexicon and perspective of their cultural parent, based on their utterances in context. Simulation results show that given these assumptions, an informative lexicon evolves not just under a pressure to be successful at communicating, but also under a pressure for accurate perspective-inference. When such a lexicon evolves, agents become better at inferring others’ perspectives; not because their innate ability to learn about perspectives changes, but because sharing a language (of the right type) with others helps them to do so.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

2020

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“…Kirby 2002;Kirby et al 2014Kirby et al , 2015. In this respect, Brochhagen et al (2018) introduces a model that analyses signaling games with respect to functional pressure toward successful communication and effects of transmission perturbations on (iterated) language learning. Moreover, next to functional factors, social factors, too, are known to be driving forces in language change (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary stability of ambiguity in context signaling games

Mühlenbernd

2020

Synthese

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In Lewisean signaling games with common interests, perfect signaling strategies have been shown to be optimal in terms of communicative success and evolutionary fitness. However, in signaling game models that involve contextual cues, ambiguous signaling strategies can match up to or even outperform perfect signaling. For a minimalist example of such a context signaling game, I will show that three strategy types are expected to emerge under evolutionary dynamics: perfect signaling, partial ambiguity and full ambiguity. Moreover, I will show that partial ambiguity strategies are the most expected outcome and have the greatest basin of attraction among these three types when sender and receiver costs are arbitrarily small or similar. I will demonstrate that the evolutionary success of partial ambiguity is due to being risk dominant, which points to a better compatibility with other strategy types.

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“…Although the learner/listener does use their model of the speaker's perspective when interpreting utterances, the speaker doesn't make use of this fact when determining which signal to use for a given referential intention. The latter could be achieved by adding an extra layer of pragmatic communication on top, for instance using the rational speech act model (Goodman and Frank, 2016) (see Brochhagen et al, 2018, for a model that combines iterated language learning with cutural transmission of pragmatic communication). Based on the findings of Brochhagen et al (2018), we predict that adding such pragmatic reasoning skills could change what exactly constitutes a 'useful language' under the two selection pressures we explored here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

Woensdregt¹,

Cummins²,

Smith³

2019

Preprint

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Several evolutionary accounts of human social cognition posit that language has co-evolved with the sophisticated mindreading abilities of modern humans. It has also been argued that these mindreading abilities are the product of cultural, rather than biological, evolution. Taken together, these claims suggest that the evolution of language has played an important role in the cultural evolution of human social cognition. Here we present a new computational model which formalises the assumptions that underlie this hypothesis, in order to explore how language and mindreading interact through cultural evolution. This model treats communicative behaviour as an interplay between the context in which communication occurs, an agent’s individual perspective on the world, and the agent’s lexicon. However, each agent’s perspective and lexicon are private mental representations, not directly observable to other agents. Learners are therefore confronted with the task of jointly inferring the lexicon and perspective of their cultural parent, based on their utterances in context. Simulation results show that given these assumptions, an informative lexicon evolves not just under a pressure to be successful at communicating, but also under a pressure for accurate perspective inference. When such a lexicon evolves, agents become better at inferring others’ perspectives; not because their innate ability to learn about perspectives changes, but because sharing a language (of the right type) with others helps them to do so.

show abstract

Coevolution of Lexical Meaning and Pragmatic Use

Cited by 15 publications

References 92 publications

A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

Evolutionary stability of ambiguity in context signaling games

A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading

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