Article published In:
Computational Construction Grammar and Constructional ChangeEdited by Katrien Beuls and Remi van Trijp
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 30] 2016
► pp. 171–192
Edited by Katrien Beuls and Remi van Trijp
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 30] 2016
► pp. 171–192
A gentle introduction to the minimal Naming Game
Social conventions govern countless behaviors all of us engage in every day, from how we greet each other to the languages we speak. But how can shared conventions emerge spontaneously in the absence of a central coordinating authority? The Naming Game model shows that networks of locally interacting individuals can spontaneously self-organize to produce global coordination. Here, we provide a gentle introduction to the main features of the model, from the dynamics observed in homogeneously mixing populations to the role played by more complex social networks, and to how slight modifications of the basic interaction rules give origin to a richer phenomenology in which more conventions can co-exist indefinitely.
References (69)
Akyildiz, Ian F., Weilian Su, Yogesh Sankarasubramaniam, and Erdal Cayirci. 2002. “A survey on sensor networks.” IEEE communications magazine 40 (8): 102–114. 
Albert, Reka and Albert-Láaszláo Barabáasi. 2002. “Statistical mechanics of complex networks.” Review of Modern Physics 741: 559–564.
Barabáasi, Albert-Láaszláo and Reka Albert. 1999. “Emergence of scaling in random networks.” Science 2861: 509.
Baronchelli, Andrea. 2007. Statistical mechanics approach to language games. Ph. D. thesis, Universita di Roma La Sapienza.
. 2011. “Role of feedback and broadcasting in the naming game.” Physical Review E 83 (4): 046103.
Baronchelli, Andrea, Luca Dall’Asta, Alain Barrat, and Vittorio Loreto. 2006a. “Bootstrapping communication in language games: Strategy, topology and all that.” In The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6), ed. by Angelo Cangelosi, Andrew D.M. Smith, and Kenny Smith. World Scientific Publishing Company.
. 2006b. “Topology-induced coarsening in language games.” Phys. Rev. E (Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics) 73 (1): 015102.
. 2006c. “Topology-induced coarsening in language games.” Phys. Rev. E 73 (1): 015102.
. 2007. “Nonequilibrium phase transition in negotiation dynamics.” Phys. Rev. E 76 (5): 051102.
Baronchelli, Andrea and Albert Diaz-Guilera. 2012. “Consensus in networks of mobile communicating agents.” Physical Review E 85 (1): 016113.
Baronchelli, Andrea, Maddalena Felici, Emmanuele Caglioti, V. Loreto, and Luc Steels. 2006. “Sharp Transition towards Shared Vocabularies in Multi-Agent Systems.” Journal of Statistical Mechanics P06014.
Baronchelli, Andrea, Tao Gong, Andrea Puglisi, and Vittorio Loreto. 2010. “Modeling the emergence of universality in color naming patterns.” Proc. Natl. Acad. of Sci. USA 1071: 2403.
Baronchelli, Andrea, Vittorio Loreto, and Andrea Puglisi. 2015. “Individual Biases, Cultural Evolution, and the Statistical Nature of Language Universals: The Case of Colour Naming Systems.” PloS one 10 (5): e0125019.
Baronchelli, Andrea, Vittorio Loreto, and Luc Steels. 2008. “In-depth analysis of the Naming Game dynamics: the homogeneous mixing case.” Int. J. Mod. Phys. C 191: 785.
Barrat, Alain, Marc Barthélemy, and Alessandro Vespignani. 2008. Dynamical Processes on Complex Networks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blythe, Richard A. 2009. “Generic modes of consensus formation in stochastic language dynamics.” J. Stat. Mech: P02059.
Brigatti, Edgardo. 2008. “Consequence of reputation in an open-ended naming game.” Physical Review E 78 (4): 46108.
Brigatti, Edgardo and Itzhak Roditi. 2009. “Conventions spreading in openended systems.” New Journal of Physics 111: 023018.
Caldarelli, Guido. 2007. Scale-free networks: complex webs in nature and technology. Oxford University Press, USA.
Castellano, Claudio, Santo Fortunato, and Vittorio Loreto. 2009. “Statistical physics of social dynamics.” Reviews of Modern Physics 811: 591–646.
Catanzaro, Michele, Mariá Boguñá, and Romualdo Pastor-Satorras. 2005. “Generation of uncorrelated random scale-free networks.” Phys. Rev. E 71 (2): 027103.
Centola, Damon and Andrea Baronchelli. 2015. “The spontaneous emergence of conventions: An experimental study of cultural evolution.” Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences 112 (7): 1989–1994.
Chandler, Robert E., R. Herman, and Elliott W. Montroll. 1958. “Traffic dynamics: studies in car following.” Operations Research 6 (2): 165–184.
Colaiori, Francesca, Claudio Castellano, Christine F. Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto, Martina Pugliese, and Francesca Tria. 2015. “General three-state model with biased population replacement: Analytical solution and application to language dynamics.” Physical Review E 91 (1): 012808.
Cuskley, Christine F., Martina Pugliese, Claudio Castellano, Francesca Colaiori, Vittorio Loreto, and Francesca Tria. 2014. “Internal and external dynamics in language: evidence from verb regularity in a historical corpus of English.” PloS one 9 (8): e102882.
Dall’Asta, Luca and Andrea Baronchelli. 2006. “Microscopic activity patterns in the Naming Game.” J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 391: 14851–14867.
Dall’Asta, Luca, Andrea Baronchelli, Alain Barrat, and Vittorio Loreto. 2006a. “Agreement dynamics on small-world networks.” Europhys. Lett. 73 (6): 969–975.
. 2006b. “Non-equilibrium dynamics of language games on complex networks.” Phys. Rev. E 741: 036105.
De Vylder, Bart and Kris Tuyls. 2006. “How to reach linguistic consensus: A proof of convergence for the naming game.” J. Theor. Bio. 242 (4): 818–831.
Erdös, Paul and Alfréd Rényi. 1959. “On Random Graphs I.” Publ. Math. Debrecen 61: 290.
. 1960. “On the evolution of random graphs.” Publ. Math. Inst. Hung. Acad. Sci. 71: 17.
Fu, Feng and Long Wang. 2008. “Coevolutionary dynamics of opinions and networks: From diversity to uniformity.” Physical Review E 78 (1): 16104.
Glazer, Mike, Justin Wark, and Beate Schmittmann. 2002. “Statistical mechanics: a survival guide.” American Journal of Physics 701: 1274.
Gonzáalez, Marta C., Cáesar A. Hidalgo, and A.L. Barabási. 2008. “Understanding individual human mobility patterns.” Nature 453 (7196): 779–782.
Gosti, Giorgio. 2007. “Role of the homonymy in the Naming Game.” Undergraduate thesis, Sapienza Univ. of Rome, 2007.
Huang, Kerson. 1987. Statistical Mechanics. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Jaeger, Herbert, Luc Steels, Andrea Baronchelli, Ted Briscoe, Christiansen Morten H., Thomas Griffiths, Gerhard Jäger, Simon Kirby, Natalia L. Komarova, Peter J. Richerson, and Jochen Triesch. 2009. “What can Mathematical, Computational and Robotic Models Tell us About the Origins of Syntax?.” In Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax, ed. by Bickerton Derek and Eörs Száthmary, 385–410. Strungmann Forum Reports, vol. 31. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Komarova, Natalia and Partha Niyogi. 2004. “Optimizing the mutual intelligibility of linguistic agents in a shared world.” Artif. Intell. 154 (1–2): 1–42.
Lei, Chuang, Te Wu, Long Wang, and Jian-Yuan Jia. 2010. “Fast convergence in language games induced by majority rule.” Physica A 389 (19): 4046–4051.
Lenaerts, Tom, Bart Jansen, Karl Tuyls, and Bart De Vylder. 2005. “The evolutionary language game: An orthogonal approach.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 235 (4): 566–582.
Lipowski, Adam and D. Lipowska. 2008. “Bio-linguistic transition and Baldwin effect in an evolutionary naming-game model.” Int. J. of Mod. Phys. C 19 (3): 399–408.
Lipowski, Adam and Dorota Lipowska. 2009. “Language structure in the n-object naming game.” Physical Review E 80 (5): 56107.
Liu, Run-Ran, Chun-Xiao Jia, Han-Xin Yang, and Bing-Hong Wang. 2009. “Naming game on small-world networks with geographical effects.” Physica A 388 (17): 3615–3620.
Loreto, Vittorio, Animesh Mukherjee, and Francesca Tria. 2012. “On the origin of the hierarchy of color names.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (18): 6819–6824.
Loreto, Vittorio and Luc Steels. 2007. “Social dynamics: the emergence of language.” Nat. Phys. 31: 758–760.
Lu, Qiming, Gyorgy Korniss, and BK Szymanski. 2008. “Naming games in two-dimensional and small-world-connected random geometric networks.” Physical Review E 77 (1): 16111.
Lu, Qiming, Gyorgy Korniss, and Boleslaw K. Szymanski. 2006. “Naming games in spatially-embedded random networks.” In Proceedings of the 2006 American Association for Artificial Intelligence Fall Symposium Series, Interaction and Emergent Phenomena in Societies of Agents (AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA 2006), 148–155.
. 2009. “The Naming Game in social networks: community formation and consensus engineering.” Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination 4 (2): 221235.
Marro, Joaquín and Ronald Dickman. 1999. Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Lattice Models. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.
Mistry, Dina, Qian Zhang, Nicola Perra, and Andrea Baronchelli. 2015. “Committed activists and the reshaping of status-qRoditi, Itzhakuo social consensus.” Physical Review E 92 (4): 042805.
Molloy, Michael and Bruce Reed. 1995. “A critical point for random graphs with a given degree sequence.” Random Struct. Algor. 61: 161–179.
Nardini, Cecilia, Balázs Kozma, and Alain Barrat. 2008. “Who’s talking first? Consensus or lack thereof in coevolving opinion formation models.” Physical review letters 100 (15): 158701.
Pastor-Satorras, Romualdo and Alessandro Vespignani. 2001. “Epidemic spreading in scale-free networks.” Physical review letters 86 (14): 32003203.
. 2004. Evolution and Structure of the Internet: A Statistical Physics Approach. Cambridge (USA): Cambridge University Press.
Puglisi, Andrea, Andrea Baronchelli, and Vittorio Loreto. 2008. “Cultural route to the emergence of linguistic categories.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105 (23): 7936.
Roberts, Gareth, Jirka Lewandowski, and Bruno Galantucci. 2015. “How communication changes when we cannot mime the world: Experimental evidence for the effect of iconicity on combinatoriality.” Cognition 1411: 52–66.
Sethna, James P. 2006. Statistical mechanics: entropy, order parameters, and complexity. Oxford University Press, USA.
Steels, Luc. 1995. “A self-organizing spatial vocabulary.” Artificial Life 2 (3): 319–332.
. 1999. The Talking Heads Experiment. Volume 1. Words and Meanings. Antwerpen (Belgium): Laboratorium.
Tria, Francesca, Bruno Galantucci, and Vittorio Loreto. 2012. “Naming a structured world: a cultural route to duality of patterning.” PloS one 7 (6): e37744.
Trianni, Vito, Daniele De Simone, Andreagiovanni Reina, and Andrea Baronchelli. 2016. “Emergence of Consensus in a Multi-Robot Network: from Abstract Models to Empirical Validation.” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 1 (1): 348–353.
Wang, W.X., B.Y. Lin, C.L. Tang, and G.R. Chen. 2007. “Agreement dynamics of finite-memory language games on networks.” Eur. Phys. J. B 60 (4): 529–536.
Watts, Duncan J. 1999. Small-worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness. Princeton, NJ (USA): Princeton University Press.
Watts, Duncan J. and Steven H. Strogatz. 1998. “Collective dynamics of ‘small world’ networks.” Nature 3931: 440.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. (Translated by Anscombe, G.E.M.). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
Xie, Jierui, Jeffrey Emenheiser, Matthew Kirby, Sameet Sreenivasan, Boleslaw K Szymanski, and Gyorgy Korniss. 2012. “Evolution of opinions on social networks in the presence of competing committed groups.” PLoS One 7 (3): e33215.
Xie, Jierui, Sameet Sreenivasan, Gyorgy Korniss, Weituo Zhang, Chjan Lim, and Boleslaw K Szymanski. 2011. “Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities.” Physical Review E 84 (1): 011130.
Yang, Han-Xin, Wen-Xu Wang, and Bing-Hong Wang. 2008. “Asymmetric negotiation in structured language games.” Phys. Rev. E 77 (2): 027103.
Zhang, Weituo and Chjan C. Lim. 2010. “Noise in Naming Games, partial synchronization and community detection in social networks.” Arxiv preprint ar Xiv: 1008.4115.
Cited by (26)
Cited by 26 other publications
Gu, Hongyu, Xinyue Qi, Liang Sun & Yang Zhang
2024. 2024 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC), ► pp. 525 ff. 
Marchetti, Gionni
2024. Generalized naming game and Bayesian naming game as dynamical systems. Physical Review E 109:6
Zhao, Chao, Ali Al-Bashabsheh & Chung Chan
2024. Game Theoretic Clustering for Finding Strong Communities. Entropy 26:3 ► pp. 268 ff.
Mancastroppa, Marco, Iacopo Iacopini, Giovanni Petri & Alain Barrat
2023. Hyper-cores promote localization and efficient seeding in higher-order processes. Nature Communications 14:1
Reagans, Ray E, Hagay Volvovsky & Ronald S Burt
2023. Shared language in the team network-performance association: Reconciling conflicting views of the network centralization effect on team performance. Collective Intelligence 2:3
Scialla, Stefano, Jens-Kristjan Liivand, Marco Patriarca & Els Heinsalu
2023. A three-state language competition model including language learning and attrition. Frontiers in Complex Systems 1
Danovski, Kaloyan & Markus Brede
2022. Effects of Population Structure on the Evolution of Linguistic Convention. In Complex Networks & Their Applications X [Studies in Computational Intelligence, 1072], ► pp. 693 ff.
Danovski, Kaloyan, Markus Brede & Jun Tanimoto
2022. On the evolutionary language game in structured and adaptive populations. PLOS ONE 17:8 ► pp. e0273608 ff.
Falk, Johannes, Edwin Eichler, Katja Windt & Marc-Thorsten Hütt
2022. Collective patterns and stable misunderstandings in networks striving for consensus without a common value system. Scientific Reports 12:1
Reagans, Ray E.
2022. Mutual learning in networks: Building theory by piecing together puzzling facts. Research in Organizational Behavior 42 ► pp. 100175 ff.
Soni, Aradhana, Kalyan S. Perumalla & Xueping Li
2022. 2022 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), ► pp. 298 ff.
Ilyinsky, Alexander Ioilyevich, Galina Vladimirovna Klimova, Evgeniy Sergeevich Smakhtin, Marina Aleksandrovna Amurskaya, Ekaterina Yurievna Rozhina, I. Klimova & M. Konurbaev
2021. Agent-based modelling using naming game for language evolution studies. SHS Web of Conferences 127 ► pp. 01014 ff.
Lipowska, Dorota & Adam Lipowski
2021. Evolution towards Linguistic Coherence in Naming Game with Migrating Agents. Entropy 23:3 ► pp. 299 ff.
Lipowska, Dorota & Adam Lipowski
2022. Emergence and evolution of language in multi-agent systems. Lingua 272 ► pp. 103331 ff.
Cambier, Nicolas, Roman Miletitch, Vincent Frémont, Marco Dorigo, Eliseo Ferrante & Vito Trianni
2020. Language Evolution in Swarm Robotics: A Perspective. Frontiers in Robotics and AI 7
Marchetti, Gionni, Marco Patriarca & Els Heinsalu
2020. A bird’s-eye view of naming game dynamics: From trait competition to Bayesian inference. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science 30:6
Marchetti, Gionni, Marco Patriarca & Els Heinsalu
2020. A Bayesian Approach to the Naming Game Model. Frontiers in Physics 8
Marchetti, Gionni, Marco Patriarca & Els Heinsalu
2021. The role of bilinguals in the Bayesian naming game. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 428 ► pp. 133062 ff.
Chen, Guanrong & Yang Lou
2019. Naming Game with Multi-Hearers or Group Discussions. In Naming Game [Emergence, Complexity and Computation, 34], ► pp. 43 ff.
Chen, Guanrong & Yang Lou
2019. Communications with Learning Errors. In Naming Game [Emergence, Complexity and Computation, 34], ► pp. 71 ff.
Chen, Guanrong & Yang Lou
2019. Introduction. In Naming Game [Emergence, Complexity and Computation, 34], ► pp. 1 ff.
Chen, Guanrong & Yang Lou
2019. Preliminaries. In Naming Game [Emergence, Complexity and Computation, 34], ► pp. 11 ff.
Zhou, Jianfeng, Yang Lou, Guanrong Chen & Wallace K.S. Tang
2018. Multi-language naming game. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 496 ► pp. 620 ff.
Palombi, Filippo, Stefano Ferriani & Simona Toti
2017. Influence of periodic external fields in multiagent models with language dynamics. Physical Review E 96:6
Perumalla, Kalyan S.
2017. 2017 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), ► pp. 1037 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. Bibliography. In Languages in Space and Time, ► pp. 179 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.