Abstract:
This paper presents a computational model of language learning, transmission, and evolution. We contrast two explanations for the observed fit of language universals with language function that are prominent in the linguistics literature, and which appear to rely on very different explanatory mechanisms --- innate constraints on the one hand, and parsing influenced language change on the other. We show using our model that both explanations can be subsumed under one mechanism of differential take up of competing forms in the language community and subsequent evolution of the learning mechanism to efficiently learn regularities in the input. 1 Introduction One of the interesting challenges facing linguistics today is the explanation of the observed constraints on crosslinguistic variation. 1 Traditional linguistic typology (e.g. [14, 9, 16, 10]) as well as generative theories of language acquisition (e.g. [5, 15]) highlight the fact that the languages of the world appear to fall int...
Citations
|
266
|
On Nature and Language
– Chomsky
- 2002
|
|
266
|
How learning can guide evolution
– Hinton, Nowlan
- 1987
|
|
185
|
A new factor in evolution
– Baldwin
|
|
108
|
Introduction to Government and Binding Theory
– Haegeman
- 1994
|
|
104
|
Biological Foundations of Language
– Lenneberg
- 1967
|
|
96
|
A Performance Theory of Order and Constituency
– Hawkins
- 1994
|
|
84
|
Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements
– Greenberg
- 1966
|
|
52
|
Language Universals and Linguistic Typology
– Comrie
- 1981
|
|
52
|
Typology and Universals
– Croft
- 1993
|
|
44
|
A Computational Model of Language Learnability and Language Change," ms., Universit'e de Gen`eve
– Clark, Roberts
- 1991
|
|
35
|
Introduction to the Theory of Grammar
– Riemsdijk, Williams
- 1986
|
|
33
|
The selection of syntactic knowledge
– Clark
- 1992
|
|
30
|
The Grammatical Basis of Linguistic Performance: Language Use and Acquisition. Current Studies in Linguistics
– Berwick, Weinberg
- 1984
|
|
28
|
Fitness and the selective adaptation of language
– Kirby
- 1998
|
|
22
|
Linguistic diversity
– Nettle
- 1999
|
|
20
|
Language and Number: the Emergence of a Cognitive System
– Hurford
- 1987
|
|
18
|
Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language
– Newmeyer
- 1991
|
|
18
|
The Logical Problem of Language Change
– Niyogi, Berwick
- 1995
|
|
15
|
The evolution of incremental learning: Language, development and critical periods
– Kirby, Hurford
- 1997
|
|
14
|
The Greenbergian Word Order Correlations
– Dryer
- 1992
|
|
14
|
A parsing theory of word order universals
– Hawkins
- 1990
|
|
13
|
Language acquisition: the bioprogram hypothesis and the Baldwin Effect
– BRISCOE
- 1997
|
|
12
|
Unambiguous triggers. Linguistic Inquiry
– Fodor
- 1998
|
|
12
|
Competing motivations and emergence: explaining implicational hierarchies’, Language Typology
– Kirby
- 1997
|
|
10
|
Internal and external factors affecting language change: A computational model
– CLARK
- 1996
|
|
8
|
Explaining Language Universals
– HAWKINS
- 1988
|
|
8
|
Adaptive explanations for language universals: a model of Hawkins' performance theory. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung
– Kirby
- 1994
|
|
6
|
culture: Computational metaphors for adaptive algorithms
– Evolution
- 1990
|
|
2
|
Constraints on constraints, or the limits of functional adaptation. To appear in: Functionalism and Formalism
– Kirby
- 1996
|
|
2
|
The Emergence of Universals: Function, Selection and Innateness
– Kirby
- 1996
|
|
2
|
Language Form and Language Function, chapter Langauge Typology and its Difficulties
– Newmeyer
- 1997
|
|
2
|
The learning-guided evolution of natural language
– Turkel
- 1994
|
|
2
|
Noise-induced enhancement of parameter setting
– Turkel
- 1997
|
