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Abstract

The emergence and evolution of human language has been the focus of increasing amounts of research activity in recent years. This increasing interest has been coincident with the increased use of computer simulation, particularly using one or more of the methods and techniques of ‘Artificial Life’, to investigate a wide range of evolutionary problems and questions. There is now a significant body of work that uses such computer simulations to investigate the evolution of language.

In this thesis a broad review of work on the evolution of language is presented, showing that language evolution occurs as two distinct evolutionary processes. The ability to use language is clearly the result of biological evolution. But the changes that occur over time to all spoken languages can also be viewed as being part of a process of cultural evolution. In this thesis, work using artificial life models to investigate each of these processes is reviewed. A review of the methods and techniques used in artificial life is also presented early in the work.

A novel model is developed which is used to explore the conditions necessary for the evolution of language. Interesting results from initial tests of the model highlight the role of redundancy in language. From these initial tests, the model is further developed to explore the biological evolution of the human capacity for language. One significant outcome of this work is to highlight the limitations of the model for developing, and especially for ‘proving’, particular theories on how or why Homo sapiens alone evolved language. This is tied to a brief review showing that this weakness is not one specific to this particular model, but may be one that is possessed by all artificial life models that try to explain the origins of language.

With further minor modifications to the model, the focus is shifted to the evolution of languages and language diversity. In comparison with some of the earlier conclusions, this work emphasises the positive contribution to ongoing scientific debate that is possible using computer simulations. In this case, experiments using the model focus on whether social and/or linguistic benefits are required in explanations of language change. A review and debate is then presented on work that contradicts our findings. Further corroboration of our conclusions is then gained by conducting a similar experiment using a different computer model.

The key contributions of this interdisciplinary work are: first, in detailing some of the unique problems and issues inherent in using computer models specifically for modelling the evolution of language; second, in emphasising the importance of redundancy in language evolution; and finally, in adding to the current debate on whether the evolution of languages can be viewed as a form of adaptively neutral evolution.

@phdthesis{livingstone03phdthesis,
  author={Daniel Livingstone},
  title={Computer Models of the Evolution of Language and Languages},
  year={2003},
  school={University of Paisley},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/livingstone03phdthesis.html}
}

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