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Language evolution as a Darwinian process: computational studies

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Abstract

This paper presents computational experiments that illustrate how one can precisely conceptualize language evolution as a Darwinian process. We show that there is potentially a wide diversity of replicating units and replication mechanisms involved in language evolution. Computational experiments allow us to study systemic properties coming out of populations of linguistic replicators: linguistic replicators can adapt to specific external environments; they evolve under the pressure of the cognitive constraints of their hosts, as well as under the functional pressure of communication for which they are used; one can observe neutral drift; coalitions of replicators may appear, forming higher level groups which can themselves become subject to competition and selection.

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Notes

  1. Experimental results and qualitative interpretations suggest that self-reinforcing dynamics of model B converge in N·log(N), where N is the population size. These experimental results can also be interpreted using various formalisms including Markov chains, stochastic games and Polya processes (see Kaplan 2005 for a review).

  2. Thus for replicator c i , the probability of mutation can be expressed by the following formula:

    $$ P_{m} (c_i) = {\frac{i}{\hbox{Number of replicators}}}. $$
    (1)

  3. Let c 1 and c 2 be two chains the length of c 1 being either smaller or equal to the length of c 2. Let k 1(i) and k 2(i) be the character in position i in each of the chain. We define D f as being the sum of the distance between the character of both chains to which is added ten times their length difference, l 2−l 1.

    $$ D_c (c_1, c_2) = \sum_i{\|k_1(i)-k_2(i) \|} + 10.(l_2-l_1) $$
    (2)

    For instance the chains 1-4-5-2 and 1-4-5-7-3 are at a distance 5 + 10 = 15. The arbitrary details of this particular distance are not important for the dynamics characterized. They are provided here only to permit a reproduction of the experimental results described.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been partially supported by the ECAGENTS project founded by the Future and Emerging Technologies programme (IST-FET) of the European Community under EU R&D contract IST-2003-1940.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris, Paris, France

    Pierre-Yves Oudeyer

  2. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, CRAFT, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Frédéric Kaplan

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  1. Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
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  2. Frédéric Kaplan
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Correspondence to Pierre-Yves Oudeyer.

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Oudeyer, PY., Kaplan, F. Language evolution as a Darwinian process: computational studies. Cogn Process 8, 21–35 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-006-0158-3

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