MoLE-package: Modeling Language Evolution

Description Details Author(s) References Examples

Description

Model for simulating language evolution in terms of cultural evolution (Smith & Kirby (2008) <DOI:10.1098/rstb.2008.0145>; Deacon 1997). The focus is on the emergence of argument-marking systems (Dowty (1991) <DOI:10.1353/lan.1991.0021>, Van Valin 1999, Dryer 2002, Lestrade 2015a), i.e. noun marking (Aristar (1997) <DOI:10.1075/sl.21.2.04ari>, Lestrade (2010) <DOI:10.7282/T3ZG6R4S>), person indexing (Ariel 1999, Dahl (2000) <DOI:10.1075/fol.7.1.03dah>, Bhat 2004), and word order (Dryer 2013), but extensions are foreseen. Agents start out with a protolanguage (a language without grammar; Bickerton (1981) <DOI:10.17169/langsci.b91.109>, Jackendoff 2002, Arbib (2015) <DOI:10.1002/9781118346136.ch27>) and interact through language games (Steels 1997). Over time, grammatical constructions emerge that may or may not become obligatory (for which the tolerance principle is assumed; Yang 2016). Throughout the simulation, uniformitarianism of principles is assumed (Hopper (1987) <DOI:10.3765/bls.v13i0.1834>, Givon (1995) <DOI:10.1075/z.74>, Croft (2000), Saffran (2001) <DOI:10.1111/1467-8721.01243>, Heine & Kuteva 2007), in which maximal psychological validity is aimed at (Grice (1975) <DOI:10.1057/9780230005853_5>, Levelt 1989, Gaerdenfors 2000) and language representation is usage based (Tomasello 2003, Bybee 2010). In Lestrade (2015b) <DOI:10.15496/publikation-8640>, Lestrade (2015c) <DOI:10.1075/avt.32.08les>, and Lestrade (2016) <DOI:10.17617/2.2248195>), which reported on the results of preliminary versions, this package was announced as WDWTW (for who does what to whom), but for reasons of pronunciation and generalization the title was changed.

Details

The DESCRIPTION file: This package was not yet installed at build time.

Index: This package was not yet installed at build time.
Set the model parameters in world. Found a new population (FOUND). Run a simulation (RUN).

For language to change (and argument-marking grammar to develop), the simulation has to run for several hours.

Author(s)

Sander Lestrade

Maintainer: Sander Lestrade <samlestrade@protonmail.com>

References

Ariel, M. (1999), The development of person agreement markers: from pronouns to higher accessibility markers. In Barlow & Kemmer (Eds.), Usage based models of language (pp. 197-260), Stanford: CSLI.

Aristar, A.R. (1997), Marking and hierarchy. Types and the grammaticalization of case markers. Studies in Language, 21 (2), 313-368.

Arbib, M. A. (2015), Language evolution. An emergentist perspective. In MacWhinney and OGrady (eds), The Handbook of Language Emergence. West Sussex, UK: Wiley/Blackwell, pp. 600-623.

Bhat, D.N.S. (2004), Pronouns. Oxford [etc.]: Oxford University Press.

Bickerton, D. (1981), Roots of language. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Karoma.

Bybee, J. (2010), Language, usage, and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Croft, W. (2000), Explaining language change: An evolutionary approach. Harlow etc.: Longman.

Dahl, O. (2000), Egophoricity in discourse and syntax. Functions of Language, 7 (1), 37-77.

Deacon, T. (1997), The symbolic species. London: Penquin.

Dowty, D. (1991), Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67 (3): 547-619.

Dryer, M. S. (2002), Case distinctions, rich verb agreement, and word order type. Theoretical Linguistics 28: 151-157.

Dryer, M. S. (2013), Order of subject, object and verb. In Dryer & Haspelmath (Eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Du Bois, J.W. (1987), The discourse basis of ergativity. Language 63 (4): 805-855

Gaerdenfors, P. (2000), Conceptual spaces: The geometry of thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Givon, T. (1995), Functionalism and grammar. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Grice, H. P. (1975), Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics: Speech acts (Vol. 3, pp. 41-58), New York: Academic Press.

Heine, B. & Kuteva, T. (2007), The genesis of grammar. A reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hopper, P. J. (1987), Emergent grammar. In Proceedings of BLS (Vol. 13, pp. 139-157),

Jackendoff, R. (2002), Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Levelt, W.J.M. (1989), Speaking. From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Lestrade, S. (2010), The space of case. PhD thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Lestrade, S. (2015a), The interaction of argument-marking strategies. In: S. Lestrade, P. de Swart, and L. Hogeweg (eds), Addenda. Artikelen voor Ad Foolen. Radboud University Nijmegen, 251-256.

Lestrade, S. (2015b), Simulating the development of bound person marking. In: H. Baayen, et al. (eds), Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Quantitative Investigations in Theoretical Linguistics. Tuebingen: University of Tuebingen.

Lestrade, S. (2015c), A case of cultural evolution: The emergence of morphological case. Linguistics in the Netherlands [AVT 32]: 105-115.

Lestrade, S. (2016), The emergence of argument marking. In: S.G. Roberts et al.(eds) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11)

Saffran, J.R. (2001), Statistical language learning: Mechanisms and constraints. Current Directions in Psychological Science 12(4): 110-114.

Smith, K. & Kirby, S. (2008), Cultural evolution: Implications for understanding the human language faculty and its evolution. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 363, 3591-3603.

Steels, L. (1997), Constructing and sharing perceptual distinctions. Machine Learning, ECML-97, 4-13.

Tomasello, M. (2003), Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Van Valin, R. (1999), Generalized semantic roles and the syntax-semantics interface. In F. Corblin, C. Dobrovie-Sorin, & J.-M. Marandin (Eds.), Empirical issues in formal syntax and semantics 2 (pp. 373-389), The Hague: Thesus.

Yang, Ch. (2016), The price of linguistic productivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Examples

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## Not run: 
FOUND()
RUN(.00001)
(situation=SITUATION(1))
(proposition=PROPOSITION(1, situation))
(prep=PREPARE(1, proposition, situation)) 
(utterance=PRODUCE(1, prep))
(interpretation=INTERPRET(2, utterance, situation))
head(population[[1]]$nouns)

## End(Not run)

Example output

EFAGIJ: ydypidapa unylakotob
JUPODI: kufepasa kufepasa lulynuhe pedejoha
JUPODI: kufepas atujesujo
EFAGIJ: kufepas pujutasym lytalalibi
EFAGIJ: kufepas rojusadi ylylahaje
   V1 V2 V3 V4 V5    V6    V7    V8    V9 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5    A6    A7    A8
3   0  0  0  0  1 0.000 0.750 0.625 0.250  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
21  1  0  0  0  0 0.000 0.500 0.500 0.250  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.250 0.625
29  1  0  0  0  1 0.875 0.125 0.750 0.250  1  0  1  0  0 0.875 0.125 1.000
31  1  0  1  1  0 0.500 0.750 0.375 0.625  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750
1   0  1  1  1  1 0.875 0.875 1.000 0.250  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.250 0.625
2   0  0  1  1  1 0.375 0.625 0.875 0.000  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
4   1  0  1  1  1 0.625 1.000 0.000 0.125  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
5   0  0  1  0  0 0.375 0.000 0.375 0.375  1  0  0  1  1 0.625 0.750 0.875
6   0  1  0  0  1 0.125 0.875 0.375 0.250  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
7   1  0  0  0  1 0.625 0.875 0.875 0.250  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750
8   0  1  1  0  1 0.000 0.500 0.875 0.875  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750
9   1  0  1  0  1 0.625 0.750 0.375 1.000  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750
10  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.125 0.625 0.625  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
11  0  1  0  1  1 0.750 0.500 0.375 0.500  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
12  0  0  0  1  1 0.750 0.000 0.000 0.000  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
13  0  1  1  0  1 0.000 0.000 0.875 0.125  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.000 1.000
14  0  1  1  1  0 1.000 0.125 0.750 0.000  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.625 1.000
15  1  0  0  1  1 0.500 0.125 0.375 0.500  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
16  1  1  0  1  1 0.125 0.125 0.625 0.375  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000
17  0  0  0  0  1 0.250 0.625 0.750 0.250  0  1  0  0  1 1.000 0.250 0.625
      A9 personA U1 U2 U3 U4 U5    U6    U7    U8    U9 personU target topic
3  0.500       1 NA NA NA NA NA    NA    NA    NA    NA    <NA>      0      
21 0.250       3 NA NA NA NA NA    NA    NA    NA    NA    <NA>      0      
29 0.750       3 NA NA NA NA NA    NA    NA    NA    NA    <NA>      0      
31 1.000       3 NA NA NA NA NA    NA    NA    NA    NA    <NA>      0      
1  0.250       3  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000 0.500       1      0      
2  0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750 1.000       3      0      
4  0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750 1.000       3      0      
5  0.625       3  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.500 0.750 0.375       3      0      
6  0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750 1.000       3      0      
7  1.000       3  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750 1.000       3      0      
8  1.000       3  0  1  0  0  0 0.625 0.500 0.375 0.875       3      0      
9  1.000       3  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.250 0.625 0.250       3      0      
10 0.500       1  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875 1.000 0.500       2      0      
11 0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.875 0.750 1.000       3      0      
12 0.500       2  1  0  0  1  1 0.625 1.000 0.875 0.625       3      0      
13 0.500       2  1  0  0  1  1 0.625 0.500 0.875 0.750       3      0      
14 0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.625 0.250 0.750 0.125       3      0      
15 0.500       1  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.250 0.750       3      1 actor
16 0.500       1  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.250 0.625 0.250       3      0      
17 0.875       3  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.625 0.625 1.000       3      0      
$external
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6   D7 D8    D9 person  ID     form frequency argument
340  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.75  1 0.875      1 340 kufepasa         4        4
    nounMarker verbMarker recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
340          0          0       0          1                8              1
        match collostruction topic    typing
340 0.9671264              0     1 0.7623013

$internal
   D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6    D7   D8   D9 person ID     form frequency argument
88  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75      3 88 halypepe         0        0
   nounMarker verbMarker recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
88          0          0       8 0.01120158                8              1
       match collostruction topic    typing
88 0.9995572              0     0 0.6763577

$verb
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5  D6    D7    D8  D9 Ext1 Ext2 Ext3 Ext4 Ext5 Ext6  Ext7 Ext8
188  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5    1    1    0    1    1 0.75 0.625 0.25
     Ext9 Int1 Int2 Int3 Int4 Int5  Int6 Int7 Int8  Int9     type  ID
188 0.125    1    0    1    0    1 0.375    0  0.5 0.125 twoPlace 188
          form frequency recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
188 onotifikag         0       8 0.01906677               10              1
       match collostruction topic
188 1.000334              0     0

$target
   V1 V2 V3 V4 V5  V6    V7    V8  V9 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5    A6    A7 A8  A9 personA
15  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875  1 0.5       1
   U1 U2 U3 U4 U5    U6    U7   U8   U9 personU target topic
15  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75       3      1 actor

$external
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6   D7 D8    D9 person  ID    form frequency argument
340  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.75  1 0.875      1 340 kufepas         4        4
    nounMarker verbMarker recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
340          0          0       0          1                8              1
        match collostruction topic    typing distractorTyping
340 0.9671264              0     1 0.7623013        0.5711109

$internal
   D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6    D7   D8   D9 person ID     form frequency argument
88  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75      3 88 halypepe         0        0
   nounMarker verbMarker recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
88          0          0       8 0.01120158                8              1
       match collostruction topic    typing distractorTyping
88 0.9995572              0     0 0.6763577        0.2876452

$verb
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5  D6    D7    D8  D9 Ext1 Ext2 Ext3 Ext4 Ext5 Ext6  Ext7 Ext8
188  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5    1    1    0    1    1 0.75 0.625 0.25
     Ext9 Int1 Int2 Int3 Int4 Int5  Int6 Int7 Int8  Int9     type  ID
188 0.125    1    0    1    0    1 0.375    0  0.5 0.125 twoPlace 188
          form frequency recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
188 onotifikag         0       8 0.01906677               10              1
       match collostruction topic
188 1.000334              0     0

$target
   V1 V2 V3 V4 V5  V6    V7    V8  V9 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5    A6    A7 A8  A9 personA
15  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875  1 0.5       1
   U1 U2 U3 U4 U5    U6    U7   U8   U9 personU target topic
15  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75       3      1 actor

[1] "kufepas halypepe onotifikag"
$external
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6   D7 D8    D9 person  ID    form frequency argument
340  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.75  1 0.875      1 340 kufepas         4        4
    nounMarker verbMarker recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
340          0          0       0          1                8              1
    topic
340     1

$internal
   D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6    D7   D8   D9 person ID     form frequency argument
88  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75      3 88 halypepe         0        0
   nounMarker verbMarker recency  activation productionEffort semanticWeight
88          0          0       8 0.001324366                8              1
   topic
88     0

$verb
    D1 D2 D3 D4 D5  D6    D7    D8  D9 Ext1 Ext2 Ext3 Ext4 Ext5 Ext6  Ext7 Ext8
188  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5    1    1    0    1    1 0.75 0.625 0.25
     Ext9 Int1 Int2 Int3 Int4 Int5  Int6 Int7 Int8  Int9     type  ID
188 0.125    1    0    1    0    1 0.375    0  0.5 0.125 twoPlace 188
          form frequency recency activation productionEffort semanticWeight
188 onotifikag         0       8 0.01253449               10              1

$target
   V1 V2 V3 V4 V5  V6    V7    V8  V9 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5    A6    A7 A8  A9 personA
15  1  0  0  1  1 0.5 0.125 0.375 0.5  1  1  1  1  1 0.625 0.875  1 0.5       1
   U1 U2 U3 U4 U5    U6    U7   U8   U9 personU target topic verbMatch
15  0  0  1  0  1 0.875 0.875 0.25 0.75       3      1 actor  1.000374
   externalMatch internalMatch penalty totalMatch
15             1      1.000069       0   3.000443

  D1 D2 D3 D4 D5    D6    D7   D8    D9 person ID       form frequency argument
1  0  0  0  1  0 0.500 0.500 1.00 0.125      3  1  lygiledub         0        0
2  0  1  0  1  0 0.500 0.000 0.00 0.625      3  2 oseparysuw         0        0
3  1  0  1  0  1 0.250 0.875 0.50 1.000      3  3 hytywofine         0        0
4  0  1  1  0  0 0.375 0.125 0.25 0.625      3  4 sewagyfana         0        0
5  0  0  1  1  0 0.375 0.500 0.25 0.625      3  5   nikelihi         0        0
6  1  1  0  0  0 1.000 1.000 1.00 0.625      3  6  afejohimu         0        0
  nounMarker verbMarker recency   activation productionEffort semanticWeight
1          0          0       8 -0.006753055                9              1
2          0          0       8 -0.002157187               10              1
3          0          0       8 -0.010020750               10              1
4          0          0       8  0.010166247               10              1
5          0          0       8 -0.006367522                8              1
6          0          0       8 -0.001915334                9              1

MoLE documentation built on May 2, 2019, 3:02 p.m.