108 posts · 76,808 views
A blog (mostly) dedicated to language, its evolution and anything else in-between.
Wintz
23 posts
Sean Roberts
61 posts
Hannah Little
0 posts
Michael
10 posts
Richard Littauer
0 posts
Kevin
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- September 24, 2010
- 08:22 AM
- 3,719 views
Language, Thought, and Space (V): Comparing Different Species
by Michael in A Replicated Typo 2.0
As I’ve talked about in my last posts (see I, II, III, and IV) different cultures employ different coordinate systems or Frames of References (FoR) when talking about space. FoRs
“serve to specify the directional relationships between objects in space, in reference to a shared referential anchor” (Haun et al. 2006: 17568)
As shown in my last post . . . → Read More: Language, Thought, and Space (V): Comparing Different Species... Read more »
Haun DB, Rapold CJ, Call J, Janzen G, & Levinson SC. (2006) Cognitive cladistics and cultural override in Hominid spatial cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(46), 17568-73. PMID: 17079489
- August 21, 2010
- 01:56 PM
- 2,343 views
Evolution of Colour Terms: 5 Cultural Constraints
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Continuing my series on the Evolution of Colour terms, this post reviews studies of cultural constraints on colour naming. For the full dissertation and for references, go here.
This section reviews evidence of cultural constraints on colour terms. Modelling has shown that cultural transmission can cause individual categorisations of colour space to converge on shared categories, . . . → Read More: Evolution of Colour Terms: 5 Cultural Constraints... Read more »
Steels, L., & Belpaeme, T. (2005) Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: A case study for colour. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(04). DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X05000087
Belpaeme, T., & Bleys, J. (2005) Explaining Universal Color Categories Through a Constrained Acquisition Process. Adaptive Behavior, 13(4), 293-310. DOI: 10.1177/105971230501300404
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008) Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(31), 10681-10686. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707835105
Kirby, S., Dowman, M., & Griffiths, T. (2007) Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(12), 5241-5245. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608222104
KOMAROVA, N., JAMESON, K., & NARENS, L. (2007) Evolutionary models of color categorization based on discrimination. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 51(6), 359-382. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmp.2007.06.001
- July 27, 2010
- 01:57 PM
- 1,335 views
Culture-driven population dynamics: sustainable or unsustainable?
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
When looking at culture-driven population dynamics, a common assumption is that there’s a positive feedback between cultural evolution and demographic growth. The general prediction, then, is for unlimited growth in population and culture. Yet models based on these assumptions tend to ignore important aspects of cultural evolution, namely: (1) cultural transmission . . . → Read More: Culture-driven population dynamics: sustainable or unsustainable?... Read more »
Ghirlanda, S., Enquist, M., & Perc, M. (2010) Sustainability of culture-driven population dynamics☆. Theoretical Population Biology, 77(3), 181-188. DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2010.01.004
- August 3, 2010
- 04:20 PM
- 1,180 views
Experiments in Communication pt 1: Artificial Language Learning and Constructed Communication Systems
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Much of recent research in linguistics has involved the use of experimentation to directly test hypotheses by comparing and contrasting real-world data with that of laboratory results and computer simulations. In a previous post I looked at how humans, non-human primates, and even non-human animals are all capable of high-fidelity cultural transmission. Yet, to apply this . . . → Read More: Experiments in Communication pt 1: Artificial Language Learning and Constructed Communication Systems... Read more »
Hudson Kam, C., & Newport, E. (2009) Getting it right by getting it wrong: When learners change languages. Cognitive Psychology, 59(1), 30-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.01.001
Kam, C., & Newport, E. (2005) Regularizing Unpredictable Variation: The Roles of Adult and Child Learners in Language Formation and Change. Language Learning and Development, 1(2), 151-195. DOI: 10.1207/s15473341lld0102_3
WONNACOTT, E., NEWPORT, E., & TANENHAUS, M. (2008) Acquiring and processing verb argument structure: Distributional learning in a miniature language☆. Cognitive Psychology, 56(3), 165-209. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2007.04.002
VOULOUMANOS, A. (2008) Fine-grained sensitivity to statistical information in adult word learning. Cognition, 107(2), 729-742. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.08.007
Galantucci, B. (2005) An Experimental Study of the Emergence of Human Communication Systems. Cognitive Science, 29(5), 737-767. DOI: 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_34
Selten, R., & Warglien, M. (2007) The emergence of simple languages in an experimental coordination game. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(18), 7361-7366. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702077104
Selten R, & Warglien M. (2007) The emergence of simple languages in an experimental coordination game. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(18), 7361-6. PMID: 17449635
- August 19, 2010
- 06:00 AM
- 1,170 views
Evolution of Colour Terms: 3 Perceptual Constraints
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Continuing my series on the Evolution of Colour terms, this post reviews evidence for perceptual constraints on colour terms. For the full dissertation and for references, go here.
The perceptual space that results from the processing of opponent colours is non-uniform (see Figure below), meaning that there are optimal ways to describe it (Jameson & D’Andrade, . . . → Read More: Evolution of Colour Terms: 3 Perceptual Constraints... Read more »
Jameson, K., & D'Andrade, R.G. (1997) It's not really Red, Green, Yellow, Blue: An Inquiry into cognitive color space. Color Categories in Thought and Language. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511519819.014
Regier, T., Kay, P., & Khetarpal, N. (2007) Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(4), 1436-1441. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610341104
Liljencrants, J., Lindblom, B., & Lindblom, B. (1972) Numerical Simulation of Vowel Quality Systems: The Role of Perceptual Contrast. Language, 48(4), 839. DOI: 10.2307/411991
DEBOER, B. (2000) Self-organization in vowel systems. Journal of Phonetics, 28(4), 441-465. DOI: 10.1006/jpho.2000.0125
Buchsbaum, G. (2002) Color categories revealed by non-negative matrix factorization of Munsell color spectra. Vision Research, 42(5), 559-563. DOI: 10.1016/S0042-6989(01)00303-0
- December 14, 2011
- 07:48 AM
- 1,163 views
The power of diversity: New Scientist recognises the growing work on social structure and linguistic structure
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
A feature article in last week’s New Scientist asks why there is so much linguistic diversity present in the world, and what are the forces that drive it. The article reads like a who’s who of the growing field of language structure and social structure. This is practically as close as my subject will come to having a pull-out section in Vanity Fair. Furthermore, it recognises the weakening grip of Chomskyan linguistics.... Read more »
David Robson. (2011) Power of Babel: Why one language isn't enough . New Scientist. info:/
- August 16, 2010
- 05:13 PM
- 1,150 views
Experiments in communication pt 2: Human Iterated Learning
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In the last post, I discussed some of the literature into experimental communication, with the intention of then following it up by looking at recent experiments done at Edinburgh (and beyond). But as Hannah pipped me to the post, with a great overview of the wide range of experiments into language evolution, I’ll instead limit this . . . → Read More: Experiments in communication pt 2: Human Iterated Learning... Read more »
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008) Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(31), 10681-10686. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707835105
Cornish, H., Tamariz, M., & Kirby, S. (2009) Complex Adaptive Systems and the Origins of Adaptive Structure: What Experiments Can Tell Us. Language Learning, 187-205. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00540.x
- August 25, 2010
- 05:26 AM
- 1,149 views
Niche Construction in Colour Term Evolution
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Language’s influence on perception can be regarded as a form of Niche Construction. The words we have for colours affects the way in which we co-operate with others to change the world. Therefore, not only does language become better at describing the environment, but the environment becomes better suited to being described by language.... Read more »
Laland, K., Odling-Smee, J., & Feldman, M. (2000) Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(1), 131-146. DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X00002417
Hansen, T., Olkkonen, M., Walter, S., & Gegenfurtner, K. (2006) Memory modulates color appearance. Nature Neuroscience, 9(11), 1367-1368. DOI: 10.1038/nn1794
Heslop-Harrison, J., & Schwarzacher, T. (2007) Domestication, Genomics and the Future for Banana. Annals of Botany, 100(5), 1073-1084. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcm191
Griffin, L. (2004) Optimality of the Basic Colours Categories. Journal of Vision, 4(8), 309-309. DOI: 10.1167/4.8.309
- September 24, 2010
- 07:39 AM
- 1,113 views
Alcohol Consumption affects Morphological Complexity
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Recent research suggests that language adapts to the balance between declarative and procedural memory users. Since alcohol consumption affects procedural but not declarative memory (Smith & Smith, 2003), we might expect to see communities that have a high alcohol consumption using less complex morphology...... Read more »
Smith C, & Smith D. (2003) Ingestion of ethanol just prior to sleep onset impairs memory for procedural but not declarative tasks. Sleep, 26(2), 185-91. PMID: 12683478
- September 20, 2010
- 09:29 AM
- 1,107 views
Language, Thought, and Space (IV): Comparing Different Cultures
by Michael in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In my last post on the relationship between language, thought and (thinking and talking about) space I wrote that one of the most interesting, but also one of the most difficult questions is to what extent linguistic differences in talking about space reflect conceptual and perceptual differences.
Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, Netherlands) and at . . . → Read More: Language, Thought, and Space (IV): Comparing Different Cultures... Read more »
Haun, D., Rapold, C., Call, J., Janzen, G., & Levinson, S. (2006) Cognitive cladistics and cultural override in Hominid spatial cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(46), 17568-17573. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0607999103
- January 5, 2011
- 06:52 PM
- 1,070 views
Recursion: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?
by Hannah Little in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Hello Hello and Happy New Year,
So a new article appeared on the internet late last year by Coolidge, Overmann and Wynn (2010) (hereafter referred to as COW because it makes me smile). It’s a really short sweet little paper and you should read it as recursion is perhaps one of the hottest topics around language evolution. . . . → Read More: Recursion: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?... Read more »
Coolidge, F., Overmann, K., & Wynn, T. (2010) Recursion: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science. DOI: 10.1002/wcs.131
- March 18, 2011
- 08:27 AM
- 1,061 views
Emergence of linguistic diversity in the lab
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
I propose an experiment based on a theory from Nettle (1999) and an experimental paradigm by Roberts (2010) to look at the emergence of stable bilingualism.... Read more »
Roberts, G. (2010) An experimental study of social selection and frequency of interaction in linguistic diversity. Interaction Studies, 11(1), 138-159. DOI: 10.1075/is.11.1.06rob
- August 4, 2010
- 11:36 AM
- 1,003 views
Language evolution in the laboratory
by Hannah Little in A Replicated Typo 2.0
When talking about language evolution there’s always an resistance from people exclaiming; ‘but how do we know?’, ‘surely all of this is conjecture!’ and, because of this, ‘what’s the point?’
Thomas Scott-Phillips and Simon Kirby have written a new article (in press) in ‘Trends in Cognitive Science’ which addresses some of the techniques currently used to address . . . → Read More: Language evolution in the laboratory... Read more »
Scott-Phillips, T., & Kirby, S. (2010) Language evolution in the laboratory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.06.006
- August 16, 2010
- 10:26 AM
- 1,000 views
The Evolution of Colour terms
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In a series of posts, I’ll review the current state of the field of the Evolution of Colour Categories. It has been argued that universals in colour naming across cultures can be traced back to constraints from many domains including genetic, perceptual and environmental. I’ll review these arguments and show that if our perception is affected by our language, then many conflicts can be resolved.... Read more »
Mollon, J. (1999) Color vision: Opsins and options. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96(9), 4743-4745. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.96.9.4743
Bornstein, M. (1973) Color vision and color naming: A psychophysiological hypothesis of cultural difference. Psychological Bulletin, 80(4), 257-285. DOI: 10.1037/h0034837
Jameson, K., & D'Andrade, R.G. (1997) It's not really Red, Green, Yellow, Blue: An Inquiry into cognitive color space. Color Categories in Thought and Language. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511519819.014
Regier, T., Kay, P., & Khetarpal, N. (2007) Color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(4), 1436-1441. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610341104
Griffin, L. (2004) Optimality of the Basic Colours Categories. Journal of Vision, 4(8), 309-309. DOI: 10.1167/4.8.309
Ember, M. (1978) Size of Color Lexicon: Interaction of Cultural and Biological Factors. American Anthropologist, 80(2), 364-367. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1978.80.2.02a00100
Lindsey, D., & Brown, A. (2002) Color Naming and the Phototoxic Effects of Sunlight on the Eye. Psychological Science, 13(6), 506-512. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00489
Regier T, & Kay P. (2004) Color naming and sunlight: commentary on Lindsey and Brown (2002). Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 15(4), 289. PMID: 15043652
Kuhl PK. (1991) Human adults and human infants show a "perceptual magnet effect" for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do not. Perception , 50(2), 93-107. PMID: 1945741
Iverson P, & Kuhl PK. (1995) Mapping the perceptual magnet effect for speech using signal detection theory and multidimensional scaling. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(1), 553-62. PMID: 7860832
- August 26, 2010
- 04:26 AM
- 997 views
Universal Patterns in Colour Terms are not Evidence for Innate Constraints
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In a series of posts, I've been discussing constraints on the evolution of colour terms. Here, I discuss the role of drift and argue that universal patterns are not necessarily good evidence for innate constraints.... Read more »
Steels, L., & Belpaeme, T. (2005) Coordinating perceptually grounded categories through language: A case study for colour. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(04). DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X05000087
Belpaeme, T. (2005) Explaining Universal Color Categories Through a Constrained Acquisition Process. Adaptive Behavior, 13(4), 293-310. DOI: 10.1177/105971230501300404
Kirby, S., Dowman, M., & Griffiths, T. (2007) Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(12), 5241-5245. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608222104
- November 19, 2010
- 06:04 AM
- 995 views
Mutual Exclusivity in the Naming Game
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
The Naming Game looks at how communication systems evolve in populations of agents. In this post I’ll show that the algorithms used have implicit mutual exclusivity biases, which favour monolingual viewpoints. I’ll also show that this bias is not necessary and obscures some interesting insights into evolutionary dynamics of langauge.... Read more »
Andrea Baronchelli. (2010) Do you agree? Role of feedback and broadcasting in the Naming Game. ArXiv e-prints. arXiv: 1009.4798v1
Vittorio Loreto, Andrea Baronchelli, & Andrea Puglisi. (2009) Mathematical Modeling of Language Games . Evolution of Communication and Language in Embodied Agents. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-01250-1_15
- August 24, 2010
- 05:00 AM
- 943 views
Evolution of Colour Terms: 8 Embodied Relationships
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In a series of posts, I’ve been discussing constraints on the evolution of colour terms. In the last post, I discussed Perceptual Warping. Here, a further adjustment to the assumptions about perceptual space is suggested.
The assumption that all perceptual spaces are the same may be unrealistic and may favour Universalism (see Levinson, 2000). To begin with, . . . → Read More: Evolution of Colour Terms: 8 Embodied Relationships... Read more »
Levinson, S. (2000) Yeli Dnye and the Theory of Basic Color Terms. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10(1), 3-55. DOI: 10.1525/jlin.2000.10.1.3
Bornstein, M., Kessen, W., & Weiskopf, S. (1976) Color vision and hue categorization in young human infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2(1), 115-129. DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.2.1.115
Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I., & Shapiro, L. (2004) The Development of Color Categories in Two Languages: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133(4), 554-571. DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.133.4.554
- September 21, 2010
- 03:06 PM
- 943 views
Genetic Anchoring, Tone and Stable Characteristics of Language
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In 2007, Dan Dediu and Bob Ladd published a paper claiming there was a non-spurious link between the non-derived alleles of ASPM and Microcephalin and tonal languages. The key idea emerging from this research is one where certain alleles may bias language acquisition or processing, subsequently shaping the development of a language within a population of . . . → Read More: Genetic Anchoring, Tone and Stable Characteristics of Language... Read more »
Dediu D. (2010) A Bayesian phylogenetic approach to estimating the stability of linguistic features and the genetic biasing of tone. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. PMID: 20810441
Järvikivi J, Vainio M, & Aalto D. (2010) Real-time correlates of phonological quantity reveal unity of tonal and non-tonal languages. PloS one, 5(9). PMID: 20838615
- November 11, 2010
- 07:35 PM
- 934 views
Animal Signalling Theory 101 – The Handicap Principle
by Anne in A Replicated Typo 2.0
One of the most important concepts in animal signalling theory, proposed by Amotz Zahavi in a seminal 1975 paper and in later works (Zahavi 1977; Zahavi & Zahavi 1997), is the handicap principle. A general definition is that females have evolved mating preferences for males who display exaggerated ornaments or behaviours that are costly to maintain and develop, and that this cost ensures an ‘honest’ signal of male genetic quality.
As a student I found it quite difficult to identify a working definition for this important type of signal mainly due to the apparent ‘coining fest’ that has taken place over the years since Zahavi outlined his original idea in 1975. For this reason, I have decided to provide a brief outline of the terminological and conceptual differences that exist in relation to the handicap principle in an attempt to help anyone who might be struggling to navigate the literature.... Read more »
ZAHAVI, A. (1975) Mate selection?A selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205-214. DOI: 10.1016/0022-5193(75)90111-3
- August 9, 2010
- 03:30 PM
- 923 views
Genetic Components and Cultural Differences: The social sensitivity hypothesis
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Cultural differences are often attributed to events far removed from genetics. The basis for this belief is often based on the assertion that if you take an individual, at birth, from one society and implant them in another, then they will generally grow up to become well-adjusted to their adopted culture. Whilst this is more than . . . → Read More: Genetic Components and Cultural Differences: The social sensitivity hypothesis... Read more »
Way, B., & Lieberman, M. (2010) Is there a genetic contribution to cultural differences? Collectivism, individualism and genetic markers of social sensitivity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(2-3), 203-211. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq059
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