Languages adapt to their contextual niche

abstractIt is well established that context plays a fundamental role in how we learn and use language. Here we explore how context links short-term language use with the long-term emergence of different types of language system. Using an iterated learning model of cultural transmission, the current study experimentally investigates the role of the communicative situation in which an utterance is produced (situational context) and how it influences the emergence of three types of linguistic systems: underspecified languages (where only some dimensions of meaning are encoded linguistically), holistic systems (lacking systematic structure), and systematic languages (consisting of compound signals encoding both category-level and individuating dimensions of meaning). To do this, we set up a discrimination task in a communication game and manipulated whether the feature dimension shape was relevant or not in discriminating between two referents. The experimental languages gradually evolved to encode information relevant to the task of achieving communicative success, given the situational context in which they are learned and used, resulting in the emergence of different linguistic systems. These results suggest language systems adapt to their contextual niche over iterated learning.</jats:p

Empirical approaches for investigating the origins of structure in speech

© John Benjamins Publishing Company. In language evolution research, the use of computational and experimental methods to investigate the emergence of structure in language is exploding. In this review, we look exclusively at work exploring the emergence of structure in speech, on both a categorical level (what drives the emergence of an inventory of individual speech sounds), and a combinatorial level (how these individual speech sounds emerge and are reused as part of larger structures). We show that computational and experimental methods for investigating population-level processes can be effectively used to explore and measure the effects of learning, communication and transmission on the emergence of structure in speech. We also look at work on child language acquisition as a tool for generating and validating hypotheses for the emergence of speech categories. Further, we review the effects of noise, iconicity and production effects

Implicit stereotypes and the predictive brain : cognition and culture in “biased” person perception

Over the last 30 years there has been growing research into the concept of implicit stereotypes. Particularly using the Implicit Associations Test, it has been demonstrated that experimental participants show a response bias in support of a stereotypical association, such as “young” and “good” (and “old” and “bad”) indicating evidence of an implicit age stereotype. This has been found even for people who consciously reject the use of such stereotypes, and seek to be fair in their judgement of other people. This finding has been interpreted as a “cognitive bias”, implying an implicit prejudice within the individual. This article challenges that view: it is argued that implicit stereotypical associations (like any other implicit associations) have developed through the ordinary working of “the predictive brain”. The predictive brain is assumed to operate through Bayesian principles, developing associations through experience of their prevalence in the social world of the perceiver. If the predictive brain were to sample randomly or comprehensively then stereotypical associations would not be picked up if they did not represent the state of the world. However, people are born into culture, and communicate within social networks. Thus, the implicit stereotypical associations picked up by an individual do not reflect a cognitive bias but the associations prevalent within their culture—evidence of “culture in mind”. Therefore to understand implicit stereotypes, research should examine more closely the way associations are communicated within social networks rather than focusing exclusively on an implied cognitive bias of the individual

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Cultural evolution is a powerful process shaping behavioural phenotypes of many species including our own. Killer whales are one of the species with relatively well-studied vocal culture. Pods have distinct dialects comprising a mix of unique and shared call types; calves adopt the call repertoire of their matriline through social learning. We review different aspects of killer whale acoustic communication to provide insights into the cultural transmission and gene-culture co- evolution processes that produce the extreme diversity of group and population repertoires. We argue that the cultural evolution of killer whale calls is not a random process driven by steady error accumulation alone: temporal change occurs at different speeds in different components of killer whale repertoires, and constraints in call structure and horizontal transmission often degrade the phylogenetic signal. We discuss the implications from bird song and human linguistic studies, and propose several hypotheses of killer whale dialect evolution

Color terms: Native language semantic structure and artificial language structure formation in a large-scale online smartphone application

Artificial language games give researchers the opportunity to investigate the emergence and evolution of semantic structure, i.e. the organization of meaning spaces into discrete categories. A possible issue for this approach is that categories might simply carry over from participants’ native languages, a potential bias that has mostly been ignored. We investigate this in a referential communication game by comparing color terms from three different languages to those of an artificial language. Here, we assess the similarity of the semantic structures, and test the influence of the semantic structure on artificial language communication. We compare the in-game communication to a separate online naming task providing us with the native language structure. Our results show that native and artificial language structure overlap at least moderately. Furthermore, communicative behavior and performance were influenced by the shared semantic structure, but only for English-speaking pairs. These results imply a cognitive link between participants’ semantic structures and artificial language structure formation.1. Introduction - Artificial language games, semantic structure, and possible biases - Color terms and categorical facilitation 2. Method - The Color Game -- Participants -- Materials -- Procedure - Online survey -- Participants -- Materials -- Procedure - Predictions 3. Results - Prediction 1 - Prediction 2.1 - Prediction 2.2 - Prediction 2.3 - Prediction 3 4. Discussion 5. Conclusio

Sequence memory constraints give rise to language-like structure through iterated learning

Human language is composed of sequences of reusable elements. The origins of the sequential structure of language is a hotly debated topic in evolutionary linguistics. In this paper, we show that sets of sequences with language-like statistical properties can emerge from a process of cultural evolution under pressure from chunk-based memory constraints. We employ a novel experimental task that is non-linguistic and non-communicative in nature, in which participants are trained on and later asked to recall a set of sequences one-by-one. Recalled sequences from one participant become training data for the next participant. In this way, we simulate cultural evolution in the laboratory. Our results show a cumulative increase in structure, and by comparing this structure to data from existing linguistic corpora, we demonstrate a close parallel between the sets of sequences that emerge in our experiment and those seen in natural language

EcoLinguistic Insights in Nias Village Name: Unravelling the Dynamic Bond Between Language and Environment

Ecological structures hold profound significance in the identification and naming of localities within Nias villages. This significance underscores the dynamic bond between language and the environment, forming a foundational aspect of the local ethnicity. This study endeavors to delve into the ecological significance that underpins the naming of Nias villages, elucidating the intricate connection between language and the environment upon which village names are founded. In pursuit of this objective, the research engages with a purposive sample of 20 informants, representing 151 localities within Nias. Through in-depth interviews, valuable insights are gathered and transcribed to constitute the research data. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, the study leverages a semantic representation protocol to categorize data according to the ecological units embedded in the village names. The investigation's findings reveal that the Nias villages predominantly employ the Nias language lexicon. Notably, 55 villages incorporate the lexicon "hili" denoting 'hill or mountain,' such as "Hilimbana" ('hill-kapuk tree') and "Hiliweto Gela" ('hill-bees'). Additionally, the names incorporate ecological elements such as vegetation, rivers, animals, equipment, events, supernatural objects, and numbers. These names reflect the deep integration of ecological elements into the local community's cultural identity and highlight the rich ecological diversity of the region. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the cultural and ecological connections in village names for the preservation of Nias Regency's heritage and the promotion of ecological awareness. Further research avenues include exploring the socio-cultural significance of village names and investigating the impact of language on environmental conservation efforts. Understanding the intricate relationship between language, culture, and the environment is crucial for sustainable development and the preservation of cultural and ecological heritage in Nias Regency