Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constrain...
View graph of relations

Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published

Standard

Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment. / Zuidema, W ; Westermann, G .
In: Artificial Life, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2003, p. 387-402.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Zuidema W, Westermann G. Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment. Artificial Life. 2003;9(4):387-402. doi: 10.1162/106454603322694834

Author

Zuidema, W ; Westermann, G . / Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment. In: Artificial Life. 2003 ; Vol. 9, No. 4. pp. 387-402.

Bibtex

@article{72d349c1a5744e92ba149989ae329999,
title = "Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment",
abstract = "Research in language evolution is concerned with the question of how complex linguistic structures can emerge from the interactions between many communicating individuals. Thus it complements psycholinguistics, which investigates the processes involved in individual adult language processing, and child language development studies, which investigate how children learn a given (fixed) language. We focus on the framework of language games and argue that they offer a fresh and formal perspective on many current debates in cognitive science, including those on the synchronic-versus-diachronic perspective on language the embodiment and situatedness of language and cognition, and the self-organization of linguistic patterns. We present a measure for the quality of a lexicon in a population, and derive four characteristics of the optimal lexicon: specificity, coherence, distinctiveness, and regularity. We present a model of lexical dynamics that shows the spontaneous emergence of these characteristics in a distributed Population of individuals that incorporate embodiment constraints. Finally, we discuss how research in cognitive science could contribute to improving existing language game models.",
keywords = "language, lexicon, evolution, self-organization, embodiment, COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE",
author = "W Zuidema and G Westermann",
year = "2003",
doi = "10.1162/106454603322694834",
language = "English",
volume = "9",
pages = "387--402",
journal = "Artificial Life",
issn = "1064-5462",
publisher = "MIT Press Journals",
number = "4",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Evolution of an optimal lexicon under constraints from embodiment

AU - Zuidema, W

AU - Westermann, G

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - Research in language evolution is concerned with the question of how complex linguistic structures can emerge from the interactions between many communicating individuals. Thus it complements psycholinguistics, which investigates the processes involved in individual adult language processing, and child language development studies, which investigate how children learn a given (fixed) language. We focus on the framework of language games and argue that they offer a fresh and formal perspective on many current debates in cognitive science, including those on the synchronic-versus-diachronic perspective on language the embodiment and situatedness of language and cognition, and the self-organization of linguistic patterns. We present a measure for the quality of a lexicon in a population, and derive four characteristics of the optimal lexicon: specificity, coherence, distinctiveness, and regularity. We present a model of lexical dynamics that shows the spontaneous emergence of these characteristics in a distributed Population of individuals that incorporate embodiment constraints. Finally, we discuss how research in cognitive science could contribute to improving existing language game models.

AB - Research in language evolution is concerned with the question of how complex linguistic structures can emerge from the interactions between many communicating individuals. Thus it complements psycholinguistics, which investigates the processes involved in individual adult language processing, and child language development studies, which investigate how children learn a given (fixed) language. We focus on the framework of language games and argue that they offer a fresh and formal perspective on many current debates in cognitive science, including those on the synchronic-versus-diachronic perspective on language the embodiment and situatedness of language and cognition, and the self-organization of linguistic patterns. We present a measure for the quality of a lexicon in a population, and derive four characteristics of the optimal lexicon: specificity, coherence, distinctiveness, and regularity. We present a model of lexical dynamics that shows the spontaneous emergence of these characteristics in a distributed Population of individuals that incorporate embodiment constraints. Finally, we discuss how research in cognitive science could contribute to improving existing language game models.

KW - language

KW - lexicon

KW - evolution

KW - self-organization

KW - embodiment

KW - COMMUNICATION

KW - LANGUAGE

U2 - 10.1162/106454603322694834

DO - 10.1162/106454603322694834

M3 - Journal article

VL - 9

SP - 387

EP - 402

JO - Artificial Life

JF - Artificial Life

SN - 1064-5462

IS - 4

ER -