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Paper at a Glance

Syntax out of Learning: the cultural evolution of
structured communication in a population of
induction algorithms
Simon Kirby
Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit, Department of Linguistics,
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
simon@ling.ed.ac.uk
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~simon

Abstract. A new approach to the origins of syntax in human language is presented. Using computational models of populations of learners, it is shown that compositional, recursive mappings are inevitable end-states of a cultural process of linguistic transmission. This is true even if the starting state is no language at all. It is argued that the way that knowl- edge of language is transmitted through a learning bottleneck profoundly inuences its emergent structure. This approach provides a radical alter- native to one in which the structure of language is viewed as an innate, biological adaptation to communicative pressures. 1
1 The origins of syntax Human language is unique among natural communication systems in having a compositional and recursive mapping between meanings (mental representations to be communicated) and forms (linear strings of, typically phonetic, gestures). It is also extremely unusual in the way it is learnt. Each generation acquires at least some of the meaning-form mapping by observing the use of the previous generation's mapping. It has been argued that this type of learning of mappings is also unique to humans (Oliphant, 1998). In this paper I will explore, using a working model of linguistic transmission, the links between these two features of language. In particular, I aim to explain the origins of syntax in language by looking at general properties of the transmission of learned behaviour. The explanation put forward here contrasts radically with what is perhaps the dominant approach to the origins of syntax. In many linguists' view, syntax is more or less fully specied by a learning mechanism (the Chomskyan Language Acquisition Device, or LAD) ...

@inproceedings{kirby99syntaxOut,
  author={S. Kirby},
  title={Syntax out of Learning: the cultural evolution of structured communication in a population of induction algorithms},
  year={1999},
  pages={694-703},
  editor={D. Floreano and J.-D. Nicoud and F. Mondada},
  booktitle={ECAL99},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/kirby99syntaxOut.html}
}

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