How can we explain the emergence of a language that benefits the hearer but not the speaker?

In this paper, we explore various adaptive factors that can influence the emergence of a communication system that benefits the receiver of signals (the hearer) but not the emitter (the speaker). Using computer simulations of a population of interacting agents whose behaviour is determined by a neural network, we show that a stable communication system does not emerge in groups of unrelated individuals because of its altruistic character. None the less, another set of simulations shows that the emergence of a language that confers an advantage only to hearers, not to speakers, is possible under at least three conditions: (1) if the hearer and the speaker tend to share the same genes, as predicted by kin selection theory; (2) if the population is ‘docile’ and the communication system is culturally transmitted together with other adaptive behaviours, as predicted by Simon’s docility theory; and (3) if the linguistic system is used not only for social communication, but also for talking to oneself, in particular as an aid to memory.

[1]  R. Hegselmann,et al.  Simulating Social Phenomena , 1997 .

[2]  Domenico Parisi,et al.  Cultural Evolution in a Population of Neural Networks , 1997 .

[3]  Simon Kirby,et al.  The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Syntax Without Natural Selection: How Compositionality Emerges from Vocabulary in a Population of Learners , 2000 .

[4]  Angelo Cangelosi,et al.  The Adaptive Advantage of Symbolic Theft Over Sensorimotor Toil: Grounding Language in Perceptual Categories , 2001 .

[5]  Phil Husbands,et al.  Language, Altruism and Docility: How Cultural Learning Can Favour Language Evolution , 2004 .

[6]  Luc Steels,et al.  Bootstrapping grounded word semantics , 1999 .

[7]  A. Zahavi.  Mate selection-a selection for a handicap. , 1975, Journal of theoretical biology.

[8]  Angelo Cangelosi,et al.  Evolution of communication and language using signals, symbols, and words , 2001, IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput..

[9]  A. Clark.  Magic Words: How Language Augments Human Computation , 1998 .

[10]  Domenico Parisi,et al.  Language, Altruism and Docility: How Cultural Learning Can Favour Language Evolution , 2004 .

[11]  Luc Steels,et al.  The Origins of Syntax in Visually Grounded Robotic Agents , 1997, IJCAI.

[12]  T. Goschke,et al.  Executive control emerging from dynamic interactions between brain systems mediating language, working memory and attentional processes. , 2004, Acta psychologica.

[13]  L Darwin,et al.  Mate selection. , 1923, The Eugenics review.

[14]  Stefano Nolfi,et al.  The emergence of communication in evolutionary robots , 2003, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[15]  S. Hanson,et al.  Learned Categorical Perception in Neural Nets: Implications for Symbol Grounding , 1995 .

[16]  Dorothea Heiss-Czedik,et al.  An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms. , 1997, Artificial Life.

[17]  F. Aboitiz,et al.  The evolutionary origin of the language areas in the human brain. A neuroanatomical perspective , 1997, Brain Research Reviews.

[18]  Brian Hazlehurst,et al.  The Emergence of Propositions from the Co-ordination of Talk and Action in a Shared World , 1998 .

[19]  S. Engel.  Thought and Language , 1964 .

[20]  Peter Carruthers,et al.  Language and Thought , 1998 .

[21]  N. Gilbert,et al.  Artificial Societies: The Computer Simulation of Social Life , 1995 .

[22]  M. Studdert-Kennedy,et al.  The evolutionary emergence of language : social function and the origins of linguistic form , 2000 .

[23]  Seth Bullock,et al.  Adaptive factors in the evolution of signaling systems , 2002 .

[24]  W. Hamilton.  The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. , 1964, Journal of theoretical biology.

[25]  R. Jackendoff.  How language helps us think , 1996 .

[26]  Melanie Mitchell,et al.  An introduction to genetic algorithms , 1996 .

[27]  Ted Briscoe,et al.  Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models. , 2002 .

[28]  Angelo Cangelosi,et al.  The Emergence of a 'Language' in an Evolving Population of Neural Networks , 1998, Connect. Sci..

[29]  Domenico Parisi,et al.  LANGUAGE AS AN AID TO CATEGORIZATION: A NEURAL NETWORK MODEL OF EARLY LANGUAGE ACQUISITION , 2005 .

[30]  Alison Wray,et al.  The transition to language , 2002 .

[31]  Ezequiel A. Di Paolo,et al.  A Little More than Kind and Less than Kin: The Unwarranted Use of Kin Selection in Spatial Models of Communication , 1999, ECAL.

[32]  H. Simon,et al.  A mechanism for social selection and successful altruism. , 1990, Science.

[33]  L E Berk,et al.  Why children talk to themselves. , 1985, Scientific American.

[34]  James A. Reggia,et al.  Progress in the Simulation of Emergent Communication and Language , 2003, Adapt. Behav..

[35]  Aude Billard,et al.  Experiments in Learning by Imitation - Grounding and Use of Communication in Robotic Agents , 1999, Adapt. Behav..

[36]  Jeffrey L. Elman,et al.  Finding Structure in Time , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[37]  M. Studdert-Kennedy,et al.  Approaches to the Evolution of Language , 1999 .

[38]  A. Cangelosi,et al.  How Nouns and Verbs Differentially Affect the Behavior of Artificial Organisms , 2001 .

[39]  D. Parisi.  An Artificial Life Approach to Language , 1997, Brain and Language.

[40]  R. Paget.  The Origin of Speech , 1927, Nature.

[41]  Wolfgang Banzhaf,et al.  Advances in Artificial Life , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[42]  James R. Hurford,et al.  Linguistic Evolution Through Language Acquisition: Expression/induction models of language evolution: dimensions and issues , 2002 .

[43]  Domenico Parisi,et al.  In What Kinds of Social Groups can “Altruistic” Behaviors Evolve? , 1997 .

[44]  Ted Briscoe,et al.  Linguistic Evolution Through Language Acquisition: List of contributors , 2002 .

[45]  C. F. Hockett.  The origin of speech. , 1960, Scientific American.

[46]  Angelo Cangelosi,et al.  Simulating the Evolution of Language , 2002, Springer London.

[47]  David H. Ackley,et al.  Altruism in the evolution of communication , 1994 .

[48]  Laura E. Berk,et al.  Private Speech : From Social Interaction To Self-regulation , 1992 .

[49]  M Oliphant,et al.  The dilemma of Saussurean communication. , 1996, Bio Systems.

[50]  Brian Hazlehurst,et al.  How to invent a lexicon: the development of shared symbols in interaction , 2006 .

[51]  Kenneth Webb,et al.  Evolution of Communication Simulation of Adaptive Behavior – Project Report , 2004 .