Modeling the emergence of universality in color naming patterns

The empirical evidence that human color categorization exhibits some universal patterns beyond superficial discrepancies across different cultures is a major breakthrough in cognitive science. As observed in the World Color Survey (WCS), indeed, any two groups of individuals develop quite different categorization patterns, but some universal properties can be identified by a statistical analysis over a large number of populations. Here, we reproduce the WCS in a numerical model in which different populations develop independently their own categorization systems by playing elementary language games. We find that a simple perceptual constraint shared by all humans, namely the human Just Noticeable Difference (JND), is sufficient to trigger the emergence of universal patterns that unconstrained cultural interaction fails to produce. We test the results of our experiment against real data by performing the same statistical analysis proposed to quantify the universal tendencies shown in the WCS [Kay P and Regier T. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100: 9085-9089], and obtain an excellent quantitative agreement. This work confirms that synthetic modeling has nowadays reached the maturity to contribute significantly to the ongoing debate in cognitive science.Comment: Supplementery Information available here http://www.pnas.org/content/107/6/2403/suppl/DCSupplementa

A fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game

The Category Game is a multi-agent model that accounts for the emergence of shared categorization patterns in a population of interacting individuals. In the framework of the model, linguistic categories appear as long lived consensus states that are constantly reshaped and re-negotiated by the communicating individuals. It is therefore crucial to investigate the long time behavior to gain a clear understanding of the dynamics. However, it turns out that the evolution of the emerging category system is so slow, already for small populations, that such an analysis has remained so far impossible. Here, we introduce a fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game that disentangles the physical simulation time from the CPU time, thus opening the way for thorough analysis of the model. We verify that the new algorithm is equivalent to the old one in terms of the emerging phenomenology and we quantify the CPU performances of the two algorithms, pointing out the neat advantages offered by the no-rejection one. This technical advance has already opened the way to new investigations of the model, thus helping to shed light on the fundamental issue of categorization.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

A fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game

The Category Game is a multi-agent model that accounts for the emergence of shared categorization patterns in a population of interacting individuals. In the framework of the model, linguistic categories appear as long lived consensus states that are constantly reshaped and re-negotiated by the communicating individuals. It is therefore crucial to investigate the long time behavior to gain a clear understanding of the dynamics. However, it turns out that the evolution of the emerging category system is so slow, already for small populations, that such an analysis has remained so far impossible. Here, we introduce a fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game that disentangles the physical simulation time from the CPU time, thus opening the way for thorough analysis of the model. We verify that the new algorithm is equivalent to the old one in terms of the emerging phenomenology and we quantify the CPU performances of the two algorithms, pointing out the neat advantages offered by the no-rejection one. This technical advance has already opened the way to new investigations of the model, thus helping to shed light on the fundamental issue of categorization

Statistical physics of language dynamics

Language dynamics is a rapidly growing field that focuses on all processes related to the emergence, evolution, change and extinction of languages. Recently, the study of self-organization and evolution of language and meaning has led to the idea that a community of language users can be seen as a complex dynamical system, which collectively solves the problem of developing a shared communication framework through the back-and-forth signaling between individuals. We shall review some of the progress made in the past few years and highlight potential future directions of research in this area. In particular, the emergence of a common lexicon and of a shared set of linguistic categories will be discussed, as examples corresponding to the early stages of a language. The extent to which synthetic modeling is nowadays contributing to the ongoing debate in cognitive science will be pointed out. In addition, the burst of growth of the web is providing new experimental frameworks. It makes available a huge amount of resources, both as novel tools and data to be analyzed, allowing quantitative and large-scale analysis of the processes underlying the emergence of a collective information and language dynamics

O fonema: categoria percetiva e categoria descritiva. Na interação entre processamento de dados linguísticos, descrição linguística e conhecimento linguístico em construção

As investigações experimentais no campo da perceção da fala demonstraram, a partir da segunda metade do século XX, a natureza categorial do processamento dos sinais acústicos da fala. O fonema passou então a ser concebido não só como uma unidade teórica da descrição das línguas, mas também como uma categoria percetiva. Neste estudo, veremos como, sem a fundamentação metodológica dos estudos experimentais, correntes de pensamento mais tradicionais em linguística - como a fonética tradicional britânica e a fonologia distribucionalista norte-americana da primeira metade do século XX - haviam adiantado já algumas propriedades desta conceção categorialista do fonema. Defenderemos que uma visão mais abrangente desta unidade descritiva e de processamento, combinando informação oriunda de diversas disciplinas e de quadros teóricos alternativos, permite uma melhor explicação não só dos sistemas fonológicos e do seu processamento, mas também da inter-relação entre estes dois objetos de estudo.Experimental studies in the field of speech perception have demonstrated, since the 1950s, that speech perception is, fundamentally, an instance of categorical processing. Accordingly, the phoneme has been conceived of as a theoretical-descriptive linguistic unit and, simultaneously, as a perceptual category. In this paper, we shall see that, even before the more recent experimental methods, traditional views - such as the British school of descriptive phonetics and the American first structuralists - had anticipated some important aspects of the categorical perspectives on the phoneme. We shall defend that a broader view on this unit, based on the combination from different subdisciplines and theoretical frameworks, could offer us stronger explanations of phonological systems, phonetic processing and the inter-relation between both objects of study

Synchronising the Senses: The Impact of Embodied Cognition on Communication, Explored in the Domain of Colour

Colour terms divide the visual spectrum into categorical concepts. Since Berlin & Kay’s (1969) cross-cultural study of colour terms, there has been debate about the extent to which these concepts are constrained by innate biases from perceptual hardware and the environment. This study shows that concepts can affect perception in the domain of colour (e.g., reading the word ‘yellow’ causes us to see yellow). An experiment was run in which participants were asked to adjust the font colour of colour terms to appear grey. In fact, participants adjusted the font colour to perceptually oppose the colour the word described (e.g., the word ‘yellow’ was adjusted to be blue). This is interpreted as over-compensating for a perceptual activation caused by the comprehension of the word. These results are used to argue that cross-cultural patterns in colour term systems do not necessarily imply strong innate biases. It is argued that the most efficient way of converging on, maintaining and transferring a conceptual system is for shared categories to re-organise perception. This re-organisation will converge to optimally fit the perceptual and environmental biases. Therefore, an Embodied, Relativist explanation of cross-cultural patterns is supported. Furthermore, if the comprehension of language involves the activation of perceptual representations, then there will be a communicative pressure to reduce perceptual differences between speakers

Etude d'une langue des signes émergente de Côte d'Ivoire : l'example de la langue des signes de Bouakako (LaSiBo)

This thesis offers a description of the Bouakako Sign Language (LaSiBo, Langues des Signes de Bouakako in French), that has emerged within a community comprising a majority of hearing members. LaSiBo is a young language that has developed within a group of hearing-impaired community members to fulfill their communication needs, but is also used by other members of the village. The aspects studied here are firstly the formal properties of LaSiBo and inter-personal variation in sign usage; as well as semantic domains such as kinship, colors and time. The size of the community, the age of the language, the influence of the spoken language and the absence of use in education are among the factors that influence the formation of LaSiBo. The comparisons carried out in this work highlight similarities and differences not only between sign languages (used in small communities in particular) – which, however different they may be, share the same modality (visio-gestural) –, but also between languages that are in contact with each other (the Dida language and LaSiBo) but use different modality (respectively audio-oral and visio-gestural).Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP, SOAS, LondonLanguage Use in Past and Presen

Galician colour semantics: An investigation of basic colour terms

This thesis explores the basic colour categories in Galician, a minority language spoken in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula that has been increasingly impacted by diglossic language contact with Spanish over the last century. This study collected data from two age groups: the oldest speakers available, who were generally less affected by language contact with Spanish, and young adults, who were bilingual and the first generation schooled in Standard Galician. All participants reported having Galician as their everyday language. Data was collected from 98 participants from 11 collection points across Galicia seeking a balanced sample of the Galician speaking population and their dialects. Results were extremely heterogeneous across and within age and gender subgroups. Nevertheless, some general trends have been identified. Consensus was much lower among elderly participants. Elderly males showed diverse categorisation patterns which ranged from distributions with fewer and more comprehensive categories (e.g. RED+ORANGE, YELLOW+ORANGE, PINK+ORANGE and even BLUE+PURPLE) to systems with more categories and more restrictive denotations. Elderly females presented similar categorisation patterns but tended to be ahead in the process of developing unitary categories, especially ORANGE. Young males had the highest consensus by generally presenting the classic 11 basic colour categories. Although young females agreed, some were developing new partitions such as LILAC. The categorisation patterns attested across the age groups generally align with the Universals and Evolution (UE) model’s premises of partition and a series of predictable trajectories. The data, however, reveals the existence of extreme variation: members of the same generation can be several evolutionary stages apart and present different partition strategies for the same hue. Moreover, this thesis has uncovered a new possibility for the development of ORANGE. Instead of partitioning unitary ORANGE directly from MACRORED, there may be an intermediary stage PINK+ORANGE. The labelling strategies for these categories were highly variable, particularly for RED and PURPLE. This variation is not frequently attested in colour semantics and highlights the importance of factors such as a) lack of — or recent — standardisation, b) the impact of language contact and c) the instability of labels when partition is not complete (ORANGE) but also much later after the category is consolidated (PURPLE). This thesis shows the relevance of sociolinguistics, linguistic background and repertoire when collecting, processing and analysing data. Moreover, a new methodology is proposed to deal with this complex data: a series of increasingly comprehensive levels that allows an operational analysis without reducing the rich phenomena the data reports