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This book brings together work on the emergence of communication and language drawing on diverse disciplines, including linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and computer science. Computational simulations of the emergence of phenomena associated with communication and language play a key role in illuminating some of the most significant issues, and the renewed scientific interest in language emergence has benefited greatly from research in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science.
Starting with a road map chapter pointing to the ways in which disparate disciplines can inform and stimulate each other, this book examines the role of simulations as a novel way to express theories in science, and their contribution to the development of a new approach to the study of the emergence of communication and language.
Worldwide contributors report on the results at the forefront of this interdisciplinary field and deliver state-of-the-art research and essential reading for researchers and graduates.
List of contents
From the contents
Current Work and Open Problems.- Section 1: Empirical Investigations on Human Language. "Needs only" Analysis in Linguistic Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Clues from Information Theory Indicating a Phased Emergence of Grammar. Emergence of a Communication System.-Distributed Language.- Section 2: Synthesis of Communication and Language in Artificial Systems. The Recruitment Theory of Language Origins. Communication in Natural and Artificial Organisms. From Vocal Replication to Shared Combinatorial Speech Codes. Lexical Acquisition with and without Metacommunication. Agent Based Modelling of Communication Costs. Language Change and the Inference of Meaning. Language, Perceptual Categories and their Interaction.- Section 3: Insights from Animal Communication. A Possible Role for Selective Masking in the Evolution of Complex, Learned Communication Systems The Natural History of Human Language. Neural Substrates for String-Context Mutual Segmentation.
Summary
Current Work and Open Problems: A Road-Map for Research into the Emergence of Communication and Language Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, Caroline Lyon, and Angelo Cangelosi 1.1. Introduction This book brings together work on the emergence of communication and language from researchers working in a broad array of scientific paradigms in North America, Europe, Japan and Africa. We hope that its multi-disciplinary approach will encourage cross-fertilization and promote further advances in this active research field. The volume draws on diverse disciplines, including linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, ethology, anthropology, robotics, and computer science. Computational simulations of the emergence of phenomena associated with communication and language play a key role in illuminating some of the most significant issues, and the renewed scientific interest in language emergence has benefited greatly from research in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. The book starts with this road map chapter by the editors, pointing to the ways in which disparate disciplines can inform and stimulate each other. It examines the role of simulations as a novel way to express theories in science, and their contribution to the development of a new approach to the study of the emergence of communication and language. We will also discuss and collect the most promising directions and grand challenge problems for future research. The present volume, is organized into three parts: I. Empirical Investi- tions on Human Language, II. Synthesis and Simulation of Communication and Language in Artificial Systems, and III. Insights from Animal Communication.
