Generating Vowel Systems in a Population of Agents (1997) [22 citations — 1 self]
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author = {Bart De Boer},
title = {Generating Vowel Systems in a Population of Agents},
booktitle = {Proceedings of ECAL 97},
year = {1997},
pages = {503--510},
publisher = {MIT Press}
}
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Abstract:
: In the sound systems of human languages remarkable universals are found. These universals can be explained by innate mechanisms, or by their function in human speech. This paper presents a functional explanation of certain universals of vowel systems using Alife-techniques. It is based on language-like interactions between members of a population of individual agents. The agents start out empty, but have a "drive" to make (vowel) sounds to each other and to imitate these sounds. Through repeated "imitation games" and through modifications of their own sound system, based on the outcome of the imitation games, the agents reach coherence. The sound systems that arise have properties that are similar to those of human vowel systems. Keywords: language origins, cultural evolution, phonological universals 1. Introduction Alife techniques have been used to aid many fields of science, such as biology, ethology and psychology. In this paper alife techniques are applied to...
