Usage context influences the evolution of overspecification in iterated learning
| Autor: | Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Linguistics and Language
business.industry Computer science 05 social sciences Context (language use) Artificial language learning Machine learning computer.software_genre 050105 experimental psychology Constructed language 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Linguistic sequence complexity Developmental Neuroscience Iterated learning Developmental and Educational Psychology 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Artificial intelligence business Experimental Pragmatics computer 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Natural language Cognitive psychology Meaning (linguistics) |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Language Evolution. 2:148-159 |
| ISSN: | 2058-458X 2058-4571 |
| Popis: | This article investigates the influence of contextual pressures on the evolution of overspecification, i.e. the degree to which communicatively irrelevant meaning dimensions are specified, in an iterated learning setup. To this end, we combine two lines of research: In artificial language learning studies, it has been shown that (miniature) languages adapt to their contexts of use. In experimental pragmatics, it has been shown that referential overspecification in natural language is more likely to occur in contexts in which the communicatively relevant feature dimensions are harder to discern. We test whether similar functional pressures can promote the cumulative growth of referential overspecification in iterated artificial language learning. Participants were trained on an artificial language which they then used to refer to objects. The output of each participant was used as input for the next participant. The initial language was designed such that it did not show any overspecification, but it allowed for overspecification to emerge in 16 out of 32 usage contexts. Between conditions, we manipulated the referential context in which the target items appear, so that the relative visuospatial complexity of the scene would make the communicatively relevant feature dimensions more difficult to discern in one of them. The artificial languages became overspecified more quickly and to a significantly higher degree in this condition, indicating that the trend toward overspecification was stronger in these contexts, as suggested by experimental pragmatics research. These results add further support to the hypothesis that linguistic conventions can be partly determined by usage context and shows that experimental pragmatics can be fruitfully combined with artificial language learning to offer valuable insights into the mechanisms involved in the evolution of linguistic phenomena. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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