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74Self domestication and the evolution of languageBiology and Philosophy 33 (1-2): 9. 2018.We set out an account of how self-domestication plays a crucial role in the evolution of language. In doing so, we focus on the growing body of work that treats language structure as emerging from the process of cultural transmission. We argue that a full recognition of the importance of cultural transmission fundamentally changes the kind of questions we should be asking regarding the biological basis of language structure. If we think of language structure as reflecting an accumulated set of c…Read more
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71Systematicity and arbitrariness in novel communication systemsInteraction Studies 11 (1): 14-32. 2010.
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70Minimal Requirements for the Emergence of Learned SignalingCognitive Science 40 (7): 623-658. 2016.The emergence of signaling systems has been observed in numerous experimental and real-world contexts, but there is no consensus on which shared mechanisms underlie such phenomena. A number of explanatory mechanisms have been proposed within several disciplines, all of which have been instantiated as credible working models. However, they are usually framed as being mutually incompatible. Using an exemplar-based framework, we replicate these models in a minimal configuration which allows us to d…Read more
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47Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structureCognition 141 (C): 87-102. 2015.
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42Adult Learning and Language SimplificationCognitive Science 42 (8): 2818-2854. 2018.Languages spoken in larger populations are relatively simple. A possible explanation for this is that languages with a greater number of speakers tend to also be those with higher proportions of non‐native speakers, who may simplify language during learning. We assess this explanation for the negative correlation between population size and linguistic complexity in three experiments, using artificial language learning techniques to investigate both the simplifications made by individual adult le…Read more
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39Iconicity and the Emergence of Combinatorial Structure in LanguageCognitive Science 40 (8): 1969-1994. 2016.In language, recombination of a discrete set of meaningless building blocks forms an unlimited set of possible utterances. How such combinatorial structure emerged in the evolution of human language is increasingly being studied. It has been shown that it can emerge when languages culturally evolve and adapt to human cognitive biases. How the emergence of combinatorial structure interacts with the existence of holistic iconic form-meaning mappings in a language is still unknown. The experiment p…Read more
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39Word Meanings Evolve to Selectively Preserve Distinctions on Salient DimensionsCognitive Science 39 (1): 212-226. 2015.Words refer to objects in the world, but this correspondence is not one-to-one: Each word has a range of referents that share features on some dimensions but differ on others. This property of language is called underspecification. Parts of the lexicon have characteristic patterns of underspecification; for example, artifact nouns tend to specify shape, but not color, whereas substance nouns specify material but not shape. These regularities in the lexicon enable learners to generalize new words…Read more
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37Species evolve, very slowly, through selection of genes which give rise to phenotypes well adapted to their environments. The cultures, including the languages, of human communities evolve, much faster, maintaining at least a minimum level of adaptedness to the external, non- cultural environment. In the phylogenetic evolution of species, the transmission of information across generations is via copying of molecules, and innovation is by mutation and sexual recombination. In cultural evolution, …Read more
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34The brain plus the cultural transmission mechanism determine the nature of languageBehavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (5): 533-534. 2008.We agree that language adapts to the brain, but we note that language also has to adapt to brain-external constraints, such as those arising from properties of the cultural transmission medium. The hypothesis that Christiansen & Chater (C&C) raise in the target article not only has profound consequences for our understanding of language, but also for our understanding of the biological evolution of the language faculty
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33Evolving artificial sign languages in the lab: From improvised gesture to systematic signCognition 192 (C): 103964. 2019.
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33The emergence of linguistic structure: An overview of the iterated learning modelIn A. Cangelosi & D. Parisi (eds.), Simulating the Evolution of Language, Springer Verlag. pp. 121--147. 2002.
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33Simplicity and Specificity in Language: Domain-General Biases Have Domain-Specific EffectsFrontiers in Psychology 6. 2015.
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33Culture: Copying, Compression, and ConventionalityCognitive Science 39 (1): 171-183. 2015.Through cultural transmission, repeated learning by new individuals transforms cultural information, which tends to become increasingly compressible . Existing diffusion chain studies include in their design two processes that could be responsible for this tendency: learning and reproducing . This paper manipulates the presence of learning in a simple iterated drawing design experiment. We find that learning seems to be the causal factor behind the increase in compressibility observed in the tra…Read more
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32Conceptual Similarity and Communicative Need Shape Colexification: An Experimental StudyCognitive Science 45 (9). 2021.Colexification refers to the phenomenon of multiple meanings sharing one word in a language. Cross‐linguistic lexification patterns have been shown to be largely predictable, as similar concepts are often colexified. We test a recent claim that, beyond this general tendency, communicative needs play an important role in shaping colexification patterns. We approach this question by means of a series of human experiments, using an artificial language communication game paradigm. Our results across…Read more
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31Evolution might select constructivismBehavioral and Brain Sciences 20 (4): 567-568. 1997.There is evidence for increase, followed by decline, in synaptic numbers during development. Dendrites do not function in isolation. A constructive neuronal process may underpin a selectionist cognitive process. The environment shapes both ontogeny and phylogeny. Phylogenetic natural selection and neural selection are compatible. Natural selection can yield both constructivist and selectionist solution to adaptuive problems.
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25Systematicity and arbitrariness in novel communication systemsInteraction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies / Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies 11 (1): 14-32. 2010.Arbitrariness and systematicity are two of language’s most fascinating properties. Although both are characterizations of the mappings between signals and meanings, their emergence and evolution in communication systems has generally been explored independently. We present an experiment in which both arbitrariness and systematicity are probed. Participants invent signs from scratch to refer to a set of items that share salient semantic features. Through interaction, the systematic re-use of arbi…Read more
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24An evolutionary approach to sign language emergence: From state to processBehavioral and Brain Sciences 40. 2017.
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23Neural preconditions for proto-languageBehavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (1): 193-194. 1995.Representation must be prior to communication in evolution. Wilkins & Wakefield's target article gives the impression that communicative pressures play a secondary role. We suggest that their evolutionary precursor is compatible with protolanguage rather than language itself. The difference between these two communicative systems should not be underestimated: only the former can be trivially reappropriated from a representational system.
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20Function, Selection, and Innateness: The Emergence of Language UniversalsOxford University Press UK. 1999.This book explores issues at the core of modern linguistics and cognitive science. Why are all languages similar in some ways and in others utterly different? Why do languages change and change variably? How did the human capacity for language evolve, and how far did it do so as an innate ability? Simon Kirby looks at these questions from a broad perspective, arguing that they can be studied together. The author begins by examining how far the universal properties of language may be explained by…Read more
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20A Social Approach to Rule Dynamics Using an Agent‐Based ModelTopics in Cognitive Science 10 (4): 745-758. 2018.A well-trod debate at the nexus of cognitive science and linguistics, the so-called past tense debate, has examined how rules and exceptions are individually acquired. However, this debate focuses primarily on individual mechanisms in learning, saying little about how rules and exceptions function from a sociolinguistic perspective. To remedy this, we use agent-based models to examine how rules and exceptions function across populations. We expand on earlier work by considering how repeated inte…Read more
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19Darwin's musical protolanguage: an increasingly compelling pictureIn Patrick Rebuschat, Martin Rohrmeier, John A. Hawkins & Ian Cross (eds.), Language and Music as Cognitive Systems, Oxford University Press. pp. 96. 2011.
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17From improvisation to learning: How naturalness and systematicity shape language evolutionCognition 228 (C): 105206. 2022.
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13Documenting a Reduction in Signing Space in Nicaraguan Sign Language Using Depth and Motion CaptureCognitive Science 47 (4). 2023.In this paper, we use motion tracking technology to document the birth of a brand new language: Nicaraguan Sign Language. Languages are dynamic entities that undergo change and growth through use, transmission, and learning, but the earliest stages of this process are generally difficult to observe as most languages have been used and passed down for many generations. Here, we observe a rare case of language emergence: the earliest stages of the new sign language in Nicaragua. By comparing the s…Read more
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10The Effects of Iconicity and Conventionalization on Word Order PreferencesCognitive Science 46 (10). 2022.Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 10, October 2022.
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8Minimal Requirements for the Emergence of Learned SignalingCognitive Science 41 (3): 623-658. 2017.The emergence of signaling systems has been observed in numerous experimental and real‐world contexts, but there is no consensus on which (if any) shared mechanisms underlie such phenomena. A number of explanatory mechanisms have been proposed within several disciplines, all of which have been instantiated as credible working models. However, they are usually framed as being mutually incompatible. Using an exemplar‐based framework, we replicate these models in a minimal configuration which allow…Read more