Recent work on the emergence and evolution of human communication has focused on getting novel systems to evolve from scratch in the laboratory. Many of these studies have adopted an interactive construction approach, whereby pairs of participants repeatedly interact with one another to gradually develop their own communication system whilst engaged in some shared task. This paper describes four recent studies that take a different approach, showing how adaptive structure can emerge purely as a result of cultural transmission through single chains of learners. By removing elements of interactive communication and focusing only on the way in which language is repeatedly acquired by learners, we hope to gain a better understanding of how useful structural properties of language could have emerged without being intentionally designed or innovated.
Beckner, Clay, Janet B. Pierrehumbert & Jennifer Hay
2017. The emergence of linguistic structure in an online iterated learning task. Journal of Language Evolution 2:2 ► pp. 160 ff.
Cuskley, Christine, Francesca Colaiori, Claudio Castellano, Vittorio Loreto, Martina Pugliese & Francesca Tria
2015. The adoption of linguistic rules in native and non-native speakers: Evidence from a Wug task. Journal of Memory and Language 84 ► pp. 205 ff.
Ferrer‐i‐Cancho, Ramon, Antoni Hernández‐Fernández, David Lusseau, Govindasamy Agoramoorthy, Minna J. Hsu & Stuart Semple
2013. Compression as a Universal Principle of Animal Behavior. Cognitive Science 37:8 ► pp. 1565 ff.
Galantucci, Bruno, Simon Garrod & Gareth Roberts
2012. Experimental Semiotics. Language and Linguistics Compass 6:8 ► pp. 477 ff.
GALANTUCCI, BRUNO & GARETH ROBERTS
2012. EXPERIMENTAL SEMIOTICS: AN ENGINE OF DISCOVERY FOR UNDERSTANDING HUMAN COMMUNICATION. Advances in Complex Systems 15:03n04 ► pp. 1150026 ff.
Gong, Tao, Yau W. Lam & Lan Shuai
2016. Influence of Perceptual Saliency Hierarchy on Learning of Language Structures: An Artificial Language Learning Experiment. Frontiers in Psychology 7
Gong, Tao & Lan Shuai
2013. Computer simulation as a scientific approach in evolutionary linguistics. Language Sciences 40 ► pp. 12 ff.
Gong, Tao & Lan Shuai
2016. Simulating the Effects of Cross-Generational Cultural Transmission on Language Change. In Towards a Theoretical Framework for Analyzing Complex Linguistic Networks [Understanding Complex Systems, ], ► pp. 237 ff.
Gong, Tao, Lan Shuai & Yicheng Wu
2018. Rethinking foundations of language from a multidisciplinary perspective. Physics of Life Reviews 26-27 ► pp. 120 ff.
Gong, Tao, Lan Shuai & Menghan Zhang
2014. Modelling language evolution: Examples and predictions. Physics of Life Reviews 11:2 ► pp. 280 ff.
Hartmann, Stefan
2020. Language change and language evolution: Cousins, siblings, twins?. Glottotheory 11:1
2023. Metropolis-Hastings algorithm in joint-attention naming game: experimental semiotics study. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 6
Ota, Mitsuhiko, Aitor San José & Kenny Smith
2021. The emergence of word-internal repetition through iterated learning: Explaining the mismatch between learning biases and language design. Cognition 210 ► pp. 104585 ff.
Palma, Pauline, Sarah Lee, Vegas Hodgins & Debra Titone
2023. From One Bilingual to the Next: An Iterated Learning Study on Language Evolution in Bilingual Societies. Cognitive Science 47:5
Pleyer, Michael, Ryan Lepic & Stefan Hartmann
2022. Compositionality in Different Modalities: A View from Usage-Based Linguistics. International Journal of Primatology
Raviv, Limor, Marianne de Heer Kloots & Antje Meyer
2021. What makes a language easy to learn? A preregistered study on how systematic structure and community size affect language learnability. Cognition 210 ► pp. 104620 ff.
Scott-Phillips, Thomas C. & Simon Kirby
2010. Language evolution in the laboratory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14:9 ► pp. 411 ff.
Tao Gong
2010. Exploring the Roles of Horizontal, Vertical, and Oblique Transmissions in Language Evolution. Adaptive Behavior 18:3-4 ► pp. 356 ff.
Thompson, Bill & Kenny Smith
2015. Evolution and Language: Cultural Transmission. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, ► pp. 357 ff.
Zhang, Yu, Li Liu, Chen Diao & Ning Cai
2023. 2023 35th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC), ► pp. 4678 ff.
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