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Modelling Social Structures and Hierarchies in Language Evolution

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Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXVII (SGAI 2010)

Abstract

Language evolution might have preferred certain prior social configurations over others. Experiments conducted with models of different social structures (varying subgroup interactions and the presence of a dominant interlocutor) suggest that having isolated agent groups rather than an interconnected agent is more advantageous for the emergence of a social communication system. Accordingly, distinctive groups that are closely connected by communication yield systems less like natural language than fully isolated groups inhabiting the same world, while the addition of a dominant male who is asymmetrically favoured as a hearer, and equally likely to be a speaker has no positive influence on the quality of the emergent communal language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computational Linguistics Group, School of Computer Science and Statistics Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Martin Bachwerk & Carl Vogel

Authors
  1. Martin Bachwerk
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  2. Carl Vogel
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Correspondence to Martin Bachwerk or Carl Vogel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science and, Software Engineering, University of Portsmouth, Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth, PO1 3HE, United Kingdom

    Max Bramer

  2. School of Computing &, Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, Park Row 30, London, SE10 9LS, United Kingdom

    Miltos Petridis

  3. , Faculty of Technology, De Montford University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom

    Adrian Hopgood

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Bachwerk, M., Vogel, C. (2011). Modelling Social Structures and Hierarchies in Language Evolution. In: Bramer, M., Petridis, M., Hopgood, A. (eds) Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXVII. SGAI 2010. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-130-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-130-1_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-85729-129-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-130-1

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