THE LANGUAGE BUG Could language be a parasite that has evolved to fit a
unique ecological niche, the human brain? Ken Grimes investigates
Dead tree issue of Jan 18th 03. page 30.
http://www.newscientist.com/inprint/ipcontents.jsp
Language evolution by Morten Christiansen and Simon Kirby.
Morten H. Christiansen [EMAIL PROTECTED] 607-255-3570 240 Uris Hall *
Language acquisition and processing
* Neural network models of language and statistical learning
* Neurophysiological (ERP) measures of statistical learning
* Language evolution
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/psych410/
INTRODUCTION Prior to the emergence of writing systems, no direct evidence
remains to inform theories about the evolution of language. Only by
amassing evidence from many different disciplines can theorizing about the
evolution of language be sufficiently constrained to remove it from the
realm of pure speculation and allow it to become an area of legitimate
scientific inquiry. In order to go beyond existing data, rigorously
controlled thought experiments can be used as crucial tests of competing
theories. Computational modeling has become a valuable resource for such
tests because it enables researchers to test hypotheses about specific
aspects of language evolution under controlled circumstances (Cangelosi and
Parisi, 2002; Turner, 2002). With the help of computational simulations, it
is possible to study various processes that may have been involved in the
evolution of language as well as the biological and cultural constraints
that may have shaped language into its current form (see EVOLUTION AND
LEARNING IN NEURAL NETWORKS). Connectionist models have played an important
role in the computational modeling of language evolution. In some cases,
the networks are used as simulated agents to study how social transmission
via learning may give rise to the evolution of structured communication
systems. In other cases, the specific properties of neural network learning
are enlisted to help illuminate ...
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/christiansen_languageEvolution2.html
