The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6), rome, Italy, 12-15 April 2006 PDF
Preview The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6), rome, Italy, 12-15 April 2006
EVOLUTION - LANGUAGE Editors Angelo Cangelosi Andrew D M Smith Kenny Smith EV0LUJION LANGUAGE This page is intentionally left blank \WP sT EVOLUTION LANGUAGE Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6) Rome, Italy 12-15 April 2006 Editors Angelo Cangelosi University of Plymouth, UK Andrew D M Smith & Kenny Smith University of Edinburgh, UK Y||? World Scientific NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 5 TohTuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6) Copyright © 2006 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 981-256-656-2 Printed in Singapore by World Scientific Printers (S) Pte Ltd Preface This volume collects the refereed papers and abstracts of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG 6), held in Rome on 12- 15 April 2006. Although EVOLANG has been running biennially since 1996, this is the first time that a full published proceedings has been produced. Submissions were solicited in two forms, papers and abstracts, and this is reflected in the structure of this volume. The EVOLANG conference focuses on the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many disciplines including anthropology, archaeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, computer science, ethology, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, palaeontology, primatology, and psychology. The multi-disciplinary nature of the field makes the refereeing process very challenging, and we would like to thank all 85 reviewers for their conscientious and valuable efforts. Special thanks go to Jim Hurford for his encyclopaedic knowledge of researchers in the relevant fields. Further thanks are due to: • The EVOLANG committee: Bernard Comrie, Jean-Louis Dessalles, Tecumseh Fitch, Jim Hurford, Chris Knight, Domenico Parisi, Maggie Tallerman and Alison Wray. • The local organising committee: Davide Marocco, Alberto Acerbi, Massimiliano Caretti, Allegra Cattani, Eduardo Coutinho, Andrea di Ferdinando, Onofrio Gigliotta, Isabella La Rovere, Gianluca Massera, Mariagiovanna Mazzapioda, Orazio Miglino, Stefano Nolfi, Angelo Rega and Vadim Tikhanoff. • The Fondazione Rosselli, the Italian Association for Cognitive Science and the University of Rome La Sapienza, for their financial support. • The invited plenary speakers: Tecumseh Fitch, Vittorio Gallese, Steven Mithen, Domenico Parisi, Alberto Piazza & Luigi Cavalli Sforza, Robert Seyfarth & Dorothy Cheney, Luc Steels, Leonard Talmy and Michael Tomasello. • Finally, and most importantly, the authors of all the contributions collected here. Angelo Cangelosi, Andrew Smith & Kenny Smith January 2006 V This page is intentionally left blank Contents Preface Part I: Papers The Mirror System Hypothesis: From a Macaque-like Mirror System to Imitation 3 Michael A. Arbib, James Bonaiuto & Edina Rosta Bootstrapping Communication in Language Games: Strategy, Topology and All That 11 Andrea Baronchelli, Vittorio Loreto, Luca Dall'Asta & Alain Barrat Language Learning, Power Laws, and Sexual Selection 19 Ted Briscoe The Baldwin Effect Works for Functional, but not Arbitrary, Features of Language 27 Morten H. Christiansen, Florencia Reali & Nick Chater On the Emergence of Compositionality 35 Joachim de Beule & Benjamin K. Bergen Towards a Fixed Word Order in a Society of Agents: A Data-driven Baseline Perspective 43 Guy de Pauw Simulation Model for the Evolution of Language with Spatial Topology 51 Cecilia Di Chio & Paolo Di Chio Mostly Out of Africa, but What Did the Others Have to Say? 59 Dan Dediu A Comparison of the Articulatory Parameters Involved in the Production of Sound of Bonobos and Modern Humans 67 Didier Demolin & Veronique Delvaux Generalised Signalling: A Possible Solution to the Paradox of Language 75 Jean-Louis Dessalles vn Vlll Innateness and Culture in the Evolution of Language 83 Mike Dowman, Simon Kirby & Thomas L. Griffiths Early Human Language was Isolating-Monocategorial-Associational 91 David Gil Computational Simulation on the Coevolution of Compositionality and Regularity 99 Tao Gong, James W. Minett & William S.-Y. Wang An Epistemological Inquiry into the "What is Language" Question and the "What Did Language Evolve For" Question 107 Nathalie Gontier Minimalist Foundations of Language Evolution: On the Question of Why Language Is the Way It Is 115 Wolfram Hinzen Why Has Ambiguous Syntax Emerged? 123 Stefan Hoefler Proto-propositions 131 James R. Hurford Convex Meanings and Evolutionary Stability 139 Gerhard Jdger Natural-language "Cheap Talk" Enables Coordination on A Social-dilemma Game in a Culturally Homogeneous Population 145 Mark Jeffreys Constraining the Time When Language Evolved 152 Sverker Johansson Working Backwards from Modern Language to Proto-grammar 160 Sverker Johansson Language Co-evolved with the Rule of Law 168 Chris Knight A Saltationist Approach for the Evolution of Human Cognition and Language 176 Susan J. Lanyon Interaction of Developmental and Evolutionary Processes in the Emergence of Spoken Language 184 John L. Locke Labels Facilitate Learning of Novel Categories 190 Gary Lupyan IX Emergence of Communication in Teams of Embodied and Situated Agents 198 Davide Morocco & Stefano Nolfi A Language Emergence Model Predicts Word Order Bias 206 James W. Minett, Tao Gong & William S-Y. Wang Talking to Oneself as a Selective Pressure for the Emergence of Language 214 Marco Mirolli & Domenico Parisi Learning Models for Language Acquisition 222 Shashi Mittal & Harish Karnick Simulating the Evolutionary Emergence of Language: A Research Agenda 230 Domenico Parisi Evolving the Narrow Language Faculty: Was Recursion the Pivotal Step? 239 Anna R. Parker From Mouth to Hand 247 Dennis Philps Diffusion of Genes and Languages in Human Evolution 255 Alberto Piazza & Luigi Cavalli Sforza Differences and Similarities between the Natural Gestural Communication of the Great Apes and Human Children 267 Simone Pika & Katja Liebal The Evolution of Language as a Precursor to the Evolution of Morality 275 Joseph Poulshock Modelling the Transition to Learned Communication: An Initial Investigation into the Ecological Conditions Favouring Cultural Transmission 283 Graham Ritchie & Simon Kirby Towards A Spatial Language for Mobile Robots 291 Ruth Schulz, Paul Stockwell, Mark Wakabayashi & Janet Wiles Why Talk? Speaking as Selfish Behaviour 299 Thorn Scott-Phillips Semantic Reconstructibility and the Complexification of Language 307 Andrew D. M. Smith The Protolanguage Debate: Bridging the Gap? 315 Kenny Smith How to do Experiments in Artificial Language Evolution and Why 323 Luc Steels
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