| Home
| People
| Research
| Links | Contact | Publications
|
Presentations |
 |  |
In M.A. Arbib (Ed.), The handbook of brain theory and neural networks (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Language evolution and change.
Morten H. Christiansen, & Rick Dale
Introduction
Prior to the emergence of writing systems, no direct evidence remains to inform theories
about the evolution of language. Only by amassing evidence from many different
disciplines can theorizing about the evolution of language be sufficiently constrained to
remove it from the realm of pure speculation and allow it to become an area of legitimate
scientific inquiry. In order to go beyond existing data, rigorously controlled thought
experiments can be used as crucial tests of competing theories. Computational modeling
has become a valuable resource for such tests because it enables researchers to test
hypotheses about specific aspects of language evolution under controlled circumstances
(Cangelosi and Parisi, 2002; Turner, 2002). With the help of computational simulations, it
is possible to study various processes that may have been involved in the evolution of
language as well as the biological and cultural constraints that may have shaped
language into its current form (see EVOLUTION AND LEARNING IN NEURAL
NETWORKS).
Connectionist models have played an important role in the computational modeling
of language evolution. In some cases, the networks are used as simulated agents to study
how social transmission via learning may give rise to the evolution of structured
communication systems. In other cases, the specific properties of neural network learning
are enlisted to help illuminate the constraints and processes that may have been involved
in the evolution of language. The remainder of this chapter surveys this connectionist
research, starting from the emergence of early syntax, to the role of social interaction and
constraints on network learning in subsequent evolution of language, and to linguistic
change within existing languages.
Click here to
download a PDF version.
