Part of
Experiments in Cultural Language EvolutionEdited by Luc Steels
[Advances in Interaction Studies 3] 2012
► pp. 169–205
Edited by Luc Steels
[Advances in Interaction Studies 3] 2012
► pp. 169–205
The evolution of case systems for marking event structure
Case has fascinated linguists for centuries without however revealing its most important secrets. This paper offers
operational explanations for case through language game experiments in which autonomous
agents describe real-world events to each other. The experiments demonstrate (a) why a language may develop a case system,
(b) how a population can self-organize a case system, and (c) why and
how an existing case system may take on new functions in a language.
Cited by (7)
Cited by seven other publications
Berdicevskis, Aleksandrs, Arturs Semenuks & Vera Kempe
2022. Imperfect language learning reduces morphological overspecification: Experimental evidence. PLOS ONE 17:1 ► pp. e0262876 ff. 
Saldana, Carmen, Simon Kirby, Robert Truswell & Kenny Smith
2019. Compositional Hierarchical Structure Evolves through Cultural Transmission: An Experimental Study. Journal of Language Evolution 4:2 ► pp. 83 ff.
Hilpert, Martin
2018. Three open questions in Diachronic Construction Grammar. In
Grammaticalization Meets Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 21], ► pp. 21 ff.
Smith, Andrew D. M.
2016. Dynamic Models of Language Evolution: The Linguistic Perspective. In The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language, ► pp. 61 ff.
Smith, Andrew D.M.
2014. Models of language evolution and change. WIREs Cognitive Science 5:3 ► pp. 281 ff.
Lestrade, Sander
Rácz, Péter, Janet B. Pierrehumbert, Jennifer B. Hay & Viktória Papp
2015. Morphological Emergence. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 123 ff.
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