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Explaining color term typology with an evolutionary model.

¹Department of General Systems Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo.

Cognitive Science

|June 4, 2011

Summary

This study simulated the evolution of basic color terms, showing how cultural evolution and perceptual biases shape language. The emergent patterns align with linguistic theories and real-world data.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Linguistics
Computational Social Science

Background:

Berlin and Kay's (1969) hypothesis proposed that basic color term systems evolve through cultural processes influenced by universal focal colors.
Understanding the evolutionary pathways of linguistic structures, like color terms, is crucial for cognitive and linguistic research.

Purpose of the Study:

To test Berlin and Kay's hypothesis using a computational model of language evolution.
To investigate how perceptual biases related to focal colors influence the emergence of basic color terms.

Main Methods:

An expression-induction model simulated ten agents learning color term denotations via Bayesian inference.
Agents communicated and learned from each other over several generations, with universal focal colors (red, yellow, green, blue) having differential salience.

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Emergent languages were analyzed for typological patterns and compared to existing linguistic data.

Main Results:

The simulation produced color term frequencies closely matching those in the World Color Survey.
Most simulated languages followed evolutionary trajectories previously proposed by Kay and Maffi (1999).
The study demonstrated that typological patterns in color terms can arise from learning biases over time.

Conclusions:

Computational modeling supports the theory that cultural evolution, driven by perceptual biases, shapes basic color term systems.
The findings highlight the interplay between cognitive mechanisms and social learning in language development.
The simulation provides a mechanism for understanding cross-linguistic patterns in color terminology.