Computational Models of Linguistic Evolution

27 Feb 2017 16:30

This notebook is for collecting references on computational, especially agent-based, models of the evolution of language. (Stories about how language came to evolve in the first place, out of pre-linguistic communication systems, are I think a largely distinct topic.) I actually have An Idea about some possibly interesting results here, but no time to pursue it at the moment.

Alexandre Bouchard-Côté, Percy Liang, Thomas Griffiths, and Dan Klein, "A Probabilistic Approach to Diachronic Phonology", conference on Empirical Methods on Natural Language Processing 2007 [This is about inferring stochastic contextual rules for regular sound changes for sound changes from large vocabularies for related languages. It's framed entirely at the level of the institutionalized standard forms of the languages, rather than the distributions of idiolects, but I think one long-range goal for the kind of model I'm talking about would be to generate (ideally, derive!) this sort of thing as a macroscopic consequence of the microscopic interactions. Free PDF, slides, project website. Thanks to Brendan Shean for telling me about this!]
Gerhard Jäger, "The evolution of convex categories" [PDF preprint. Shows that "evolutionary dynamics of communicative strategies under very general assumptions" tends to produce linguistic categories whose semantic extensions in "conceptual spaces" are convex. This is a cool, and in fact analytic, result...]
LEADS group, Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography [A huge collection of references on this and related topics, many with full text links; a great resource, if you're interest in this. Thanks to Les Gasser for the pointer.]
Mark Liberman, "The Invisible Academy: Non-Linear Effects of Linear Learning" [HTML and powerpoint versions of earlier incarnations of this talk]
Hariharan Narayanan and Partha Niyogi, "Language Evolution, Coalescent Processes, and the Consensus Problem on a Social Network" [Exact results on a generalization of Liberman's model, via the coalescent trick from population genetics]

Andrea Baronchelli, Luca Dall'Asta, Alain Barrat, Vittorio Loreto, "Strategies for fast convergence in semiotic dynamics", physics/0511201
Andrea Baronchelli, M. Felici, E. Caglioti, Vittorio Loreto, L. Steels, "Sharp Transition towards Shared Vocabularies in Multi-Agent Systems", physics/0509075
Alain Barrat, Andrea Baronchelli, Luca Dall'Asta and Vittorio Loreto, "Agreement dynamics on interaction networks with diverse topologies", Chaos 17 (2007): 026111
R. A. Blythe, "Generic modes of consensus formation in stochastic language dynamics", Journal of Statistical Mechanics 2009: P02059, arxiv:0812.3313
Ted Briscoe (ed.), Linguistic Evolution Through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models
Simon Kirby, Mike Dowman, and Thomas L. Griffiths, "Innateness and culture in the evolution of language", Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences (USA) 104 (2007): 5241--5245 [Thanks to Gustavo Lacerda for the pointer]
Partha Niyogi, The Computational Nature of Language Learning and Evolution [Blurb]
Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
- "How Phonological Structures Can Be Culturally Selected for Learnability", Adaptive Behavior 13 (2005): 269--280 [PDF preprint]
- Self-Organization in the Evolution of Speech [Book homepage. Many thanks to Dr. Oudeyer for sending me a copy!]
Andrea Puglisi, Andrea Baronchelli, Vittorio Loreto, "Cultural route to the emergence of linguistic categories", physics/0703164
Andrew D. M. Smith, "The Inferential Transmission of Language", Adaptive Behavior 13 (2005): 311--324
Paul Vogt (ed.), "Language Acquisition and Evolution" (special issue of Adaptive Behavior --- vol. 13, no. 4, December 2005)
Paul Vogt, "On the Acquisition and Evolution of Compositional Languages: Sparse Input and the Productive Creativity of Children", Adaptive Behavior 13 (2005): 325--346