Modeling the cultural evolution of language

Steels, Luc

doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2011.10.014

Cited by 230 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…We agree with other usage-based approaches that language is a complex adaptive system with dynamic and emergent properties (see, e.g., Heine, 2002;Beckner et al, 2009;Winters, 2010;Steels, 2011). However, we differ from some of these approaches by introducing a more radical notion of contextdependence and 'emergence' of linguistic behavior.…”

supporting

confidence: 81%

Recontextualization: The Dynamics of Language Behavior and Change

Kuhle¹,

Mengden²

2018

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (Evolang12)

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supporting

confidence: 81%

Recontextualization: The Dynamics of Language Behavior and Change

Kuhle¹,

Mengden²

2018

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (Evolang12)

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“…(141). In other words, the transmission of language requires conceptual alignment or compatible mental representations that are abstracted away from varying experiences and knowledge bases (142,143).…”

Section: Conformity and Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How language shapes the cultural inheritance of categories

Gelman

Roberts

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

110

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It is widely recognized that language plays a key role in the transmission of human culture, but relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which language simultaneously encourages both cultural stability and cultural innovation. This paper examines this issue by focusing on the use of language to transmit categories, focusing on two universal devices: labels (e.g., shark, woman) and generics (e.g., "sharks attack swimmers"; "women are nurturing"). We propose that labels and generics each assume two key principles: norms and essentialism. The normative assumption permits transmission of category information with great fidelity, whereas essentialism invites innovation by means of an open-ended, placeholder structure. Additionally, we sketch out how labels and generics aid in conceptual alignment and the progressive "looping" between categories and cultural practices. In this way, human language is a technology that enhances and expands the categorization capacities that we share with other animals.language | categories | essentialism | norms | children

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“…This model has another important feature: It introduces dyadic brain modeling, which focuses on what happens in the brains of two interacting agents, a dyad, where the actions of one influence the actions of the other, with both brains changing in the process. Luc Steels (e.g., Beuls & Steels, 2013;Steels, 2011) has used a simulation of embodied agents in evolutionary games in a fashion relevant to studies of (cultural) language evolution. Our innovation here is to provide the agents with Bbrains^based on prior work in brain modeling.…”

Section: Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward the Language-Ready Brain: Biological Evolution and Primate Comparisons

Arbib

2016

Psychon Bull Rev

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The approach to language evolution suggested here focuses on three questions: How did the human brain evolve so that humans can develop, use, and acquire languages? How can the evolutionary quest be informed by studying brain, behavior, and social interaction in monkeys, apes, and humans? How can computational modeling advance these studies? I hypothesize that the brain is language ready in that the earliest humans had protolanguages but not languages (i.e., communication systems endowed with rich and openended lexicons and grammars supporting a compositional semantics), and that it took cultural evolution to yield societies (a cultural constructed niche) in which language-ready brains could become language-using brains. The mirror system hypothesis is a well-developed example of this approach, but I offer it here not as a closed theory but as an evolving framework for the development and analysis of conflicting subhypotheses in the hope of their eventual integration. I also stress that computational modeling helps us understand the evolving role of mirror neurons, not in and of themselves, but only in their interaction with systems Bbeyond the mirror.B ecause a theory of evolution needs a clear characterization of what it is that evolved, I also outline ideas for research in neurolinguistics to complement studies of the evolution of the language-ready brain. A clear challenge is to go beyond models of speech comprehension to include sign language and models of production, and to link language to visuomotor interaction with the physical and social world.

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Modeling the cultural evolution of language

Cited by 230 publications

References 61 publications

Recontextualization: The Dynamics of Language Behavior and Change

Recontextualization: The Dynamics of Language Behavior and Change

How language shapes the cultural inheritance of categories

Toward the Language-Ready Brain: Biological Evolution and Primate Comparisons

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