Human language is unique among the communication systems of the natural world. The vocabulary of human language is unique in being both culturally-transmitted and symbolic. In this paper I present an investigation into the factors involved in the evolution of such vocabulary systems. I investigate both the cultural evolution of vocabulary systems and the biological evolution of learning rules for vocabulary acquisition.

In this paper we explore the similarities between a mathematical model of language evolution and several A-life simulations. We argue that the mathematical model makes some problematic simplications, but that a combination with computational models can help to adapt and extend existing language evolution scenario's.

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There has been a vigourous debate in the evolution of language literature on whether the human capacity for language evolved gradually or with an abrupt “big bang”. One of the arguments in favor of the latter position has been that human language is an all or nothing phenomenon that is of no value when only part of its apparatus is in place. From a developmental perspective this has always been a peculiar argument, seemingly at odds with the gradual development of phonological, syntactic and semantic skills of infants. In the context of the evolution of language, the argument was eloquently refuted in a seminal paper by Pinker & Bloom (1990). However, Pinker & Bloom did not go much further than stating that a gradual evolution of Universal Grammar was possible. They did not explore the consequences of such a view for linguistic theory, and their approach was critized by both orthodox generativists and their long-term opponents. Jackendoff (2002) has now gone one step further. If linguistic theory is incompatible with gradual evolution and development, perhaps linguistic theory needs to be revised. Jackendoff has written a powerful book around the thesis that the language capacity is a collection of skills (“a toolbox”). Some of these skills are language-specific, some not, and each of them is functional even without all

Theories of the evolutionary origins of language must be informed by empirical and theoretical results from a variety of different fields. Complementing recent surveys of relevant work from linguistics, animal behaviour and genetics, this paper surveys the requirements on evolutionary scenarios that derive from mathematical evolutionary biology. It presents a number of simple but fundamental models from population genetics, evolutionary gametheory and social evolution theory, and evaluates their applicability to natural language. This review yields a list of required elements of evolutionary explanations in general, and of explanations for language and communication in particular. 1