Exploring social structure effect on language evolution based on a computational model

Authors:
Tao Gong;James W. Minett;William S. -Y. Wang
Affiliations:
Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China;Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China;Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
Venue:
Connection Science - Social Learning in Embodied Agents
Year:
2008

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Abstract

A compositionality-regularity coevolution model is adopted to explore the effect of social structure on language emergence and maintenance. Based on this model, we explore language evolution in three experiments, and discuss the role of a popular agent in language evolution, the relationship between mutual understanding and social hierarchy, and the effect of inter-community communications and that of simple linguistic features on convergence of communal languages in two communities. This work embodies several important interactions during social learning, and introduces a new approach that manipulates individuals' probabilities to participate in social interactions to study the effect of social structure. We hope it will stimulate further theoretical and empirical explorations on language evolution in a social environment.