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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
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Published on: February 3, 2023

The evolution of relevance.

Thomas C Scott-Phillips1

  • 1School of Psychology, Philosophy, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

Cognitive Science
|May 14, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study explores how humans understand language meaning in context. It presents a game-theoretic model supporting Relevance Theory over Gricean maxims for communication evolution.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Human language exhibits contextual ambiguity, yet listeners accurately infer intended meaning.
  • The Gricean maxims of conversation offer a framework for understanding utterance interpretation.
  • Relevance Theory presents a cognitive challenge to the Gricean paradigm.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate competing theories of language interpretation using evolutionary principles.
  • To provide biological support for Relevance Theory's cognitive mechanisms.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a simple game-theoretic model for the evolution of communication.
  • Derivation of fundamental qualities inherent in all evolved communication systems.

Main Results:

  • The derived qualities from the model align precisely with the foundational principles of Relevance Theory.
  • The model demonstrates that these qualities are essential for evolved communication.

Conclusions:

  • Evolutionary considerations and game-theoretic modeling offer biological support for Relevance Theory.
  • The findings underscore the plausibility of Relevance Theory's cognitive mechanisms in explaining human language comprehension.