Human language is a unique ability. It sits apart from other systems of communication in two striking ways: it is syntactic, and it is learned. While most approaches to the evolution of language have focused on the evolution of syntax, this paper explores the computational issues that arise in shifting from a simple innate communication system to an equally simple one that is learned. Associative network learning within an observational learning paradigm is used to explore the computational difficulties involved in establishing and maintaining a simple learned communica tion system. Because Hebbian learning is found to be sufficient for this task, it is proposed that the basic computational demands of learning are unlikely to account for the rarity of even simple learned communication systems. Instead, it is the problem of *observing* that is likely to be cen tral — in particular the problem of determining what meaning a signal is intended to convey.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ackley, D. and Littman, M. (1994). Altruism in the evolution of communication. In R. Brooks and P Maes (Eds.), Proceedings of the fourth artificial life workshop, Cambridge, MA, pp. 40-48. MIT Press.
2.
Batali, J. (1997). Computational simulations of the emergence of grammar. In J. Hurford, C. Knight, and M. Studdert-Kennedy (Eds.), Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases for the Emergence of Phonology and Syntax. Cambridge University Press.
3.
Bickerton, D. (1981). Roots of language. Ann Arbor, MI: Karoma.
4.
Bienenstock, E., Cooper, L., and Munro, P. (1982). Theory for the development of neuron selectivity: Orientation specificity and binocular interaction in visual cortex. Journal ofNeuroscience, 2, 32-48.
5.
Billard, A. and Dautenhahn, K. (1997). The social aspect of communication: a case study in the use and usefulness of communication for embodied agents. In Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, Brighton, England.
6.
Bloom, P. (1997). Intentionality and word learning. Trends in cognitive sciences, 1 (1), 9-12.
7.
Blume, A., Kim, Y., and Sobel, J. (1993). Evolutionary stability in games of communication . Games and Economic Behavior, 5, 547-575.
8.
Bullock, S. (1997). An exploration of signaling behavior by both analytic and simulation means for both discrete and continuous models. In Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, Brighton, England, pp. 454-463.
9.
Cangelosi, A. and Parisi, D. (1996, January). The emergence of a 'language' in an evolving population of neural networks. Technical Report NSAL-96-004, Institute of Psychology, National Research Council, Rome.
10.
Crain, S. (1991). Language acquisition in the absence of experience . Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14, 597-611.
11.
de Bourcier, P. and Wheeler, M. (1997). The truth is out there: The evolution of reliability in aggressive communication systems. In Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, Brighton, England, pp. 444-453.
12.
Di Paolo, E. (1997). An investigation into the evolution of communication . Adaptive Behavior, 6 (2), 285-324.
13.
Grossberg, S. (1976). Adaptive pattern classification and universal recording: Ii. feedback, expectation, olfaction, illusions. Biological Cybernetics, 23, 187-202.
14.
Hauser, M. (1996). The evolution of communication. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
15.
Hebb, D. (1949). The organization of behavior. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
16.
Hurford, J. (1989). Biological evolution of the saussurean sign as a component of the language acquisition device. Lingua, 77, 187-222.
17.
Hutchins, E. and Hazelhurst, B. (1995). How to invent a lexicon: the development of shared symbols in interaction. In N. Gilbert and R. Conte (Eds.), Artificial Societies: The computer simulation of social life. London : UCL Press.
18.
Hutchins, E. and Hazelhurst, B. (1997). The emergence of propositions from the coordination of talk and action in a shared world. forthcoming.
19.
Kim, Y. and Sobel, J. (1995). An evolutionary approach to pre-play communication . Econometrica, 65 (5), 1181-1193.
20.
Kirby, S. (1998). Language evolution without natural selection: From vocabulary to syntax in a population of learners. Technical Report EOPL-98-1, Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh.
21.
Kohonen, T. (1989). Self-Organization and associative memory (3rd ed.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
22.
Levin, M. (1995). The evolution of understanding: a genetic algorithm model of the evolution of communication. BioSystems, 36, 167-178.
23.
Lewis, D. (1969). Convention: A philosophical study. Harvard University Press.
24.
Lieberman, P. (1984). The biology and evolution of language. Harvard University Press.
25.
MacLennan, B. and Burghardt, G. (1994). Synthetic ethology and the evolution of the cooperative communication. Adaptive Behavior, 2(2), 161-187.
26.
Markman, E. (1989). Categorization and naming in children: Problems of induction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27.
Marler, P. (1970). A comparative approach to vocal learning: song development in white-crowned sparrows. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 71, 1-25.
28.
Murciano, A. and Millan, J. (1996). Learning signaling behaviors and specialization in cooperative agents. Adaptive Behavior, 5 (1), 5-28.
29.
Newmeyer, F.J. (1991). Functional explanation in linguistics and the origins of language. Language and Communication, 11, 3-28.
30.
Noble, J. (1998, June). Evolved signals: Expensive hype vs. conspiratorial whispers. Paper presented at the Alife VI conference .
31.
Oliphant, M. (1993). Conditions for the evolution of saussurean communication . unpublished master's thesis, University of California , San Diego.
32.
Oliphant, M. (1996). The dilemma of saussurean communication. BioSystems, 37(1-2), 31-38.
33.
Oliphant, M. (1998). Self-organized coordination in populations of interacting associative networks. Manuscript in preparation.
34.
Oliphant, M. (to appear). Rethinking the language bottleneck: Why don't animals learn to communicate ? In C. Knight, M. Studdert-Kennedy, and J. Hurford (Eds.), The Emergence of Language, London.
35.
Oliphant, M. and Batali, J. (1997). Learning and the emergence of coordinated communication . Center for Research on Language Newsletter, 11(1).
36.
Pinker, S. and Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707-784.
37.
Pulliam, H. and Dunford, C. (1980). Programmed to learn. New York : Columbia University Press.
38.
Schmajuk, N. (1997). Animal Learning and Cognition: A neural network approach, pp. 180-182. New York: Cambridge University Press.
39.
Seyfarth, R. and Cheney, D. (1986). Vocal development in vervet monkeys. Animal Behavior, 34, 1640-1658.
40.
Skyrms, B. (1996). Evolution of the social contract. Cambridge University Press.
41.
Steels, L. (1996). Self-organizing vocabularies. In Proceedings of the VAlife Conference, Nara , Japan.
42.
Tomasello, M. (1995). Pragmatic contexts for early verb learning. In M. Tomasello and W Merriman (Eds.), Beyond Names for Things: Young children's Acquisition of Verbs. LawrenceErlbaum.
43.
Warneryard, K. (1993). Cheap talk, coordination, and evolutionary stability . Games and Economic Behavior, 5, 532-546.
44.
Werner, G. and Dyer, M. (1991). Evolution of communication in artificial organisms . In C. Langton, C. Taylor, J. Farmer, and S. Rasmussen (Eds.), Artificial Life II, pp. 659-687. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley.
45.
Werner, G. and Todd, P. (1997). Too many love songs: Sexual selection and the evolution of communication. In Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, Brighton, England, pp. 434-443.
46.
Wexler, K. and Culicover, P. (1980). Formal principles of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
47.
Willshaw, D. (1971). Models of distributed associative memory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh.
48.
Willshaw, D., Buneman, O., and Longuet-Higgins, H. (1969). Non-holographic associative memory. Nature, 222, 960-962.
49.
Wordon, R. (1997). The evolution of language from social intelligence . In J. Hurford, C. Knight, and M. Studdert-Kennedy (Eds.), Evolution of Language: Social and Cognitive Bases for the Emergence of Phonology and Syntax. Cambridge University Press.
50.
Yanco, H. and Stein, L. (1993). An adaptive communication protocol for cooperating mobile robots. In J. Meyer, H. Roitblat, and S. Wilson (Eds.), From Animal to Animats 2: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. MIT Press.
