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Updated: May 27, 2026
05:35
Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
Published on: April 19, 2017
Modeling the cultural evolution of language.
1ICREA, Institute for Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Dr. Aiguadar 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. steels@arti.vub.ac.be
Physics of Life Reviews
|November 11, 2011
Summary
Cultural evolution, not just genetics, drives language evolution. Agent-based models and robotic experiments show cultural processes explain convention sharing, conceptual coordination, and structure emergence, reducing the need for innate biases.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary linguistics
- Cultural evolution
- Computational modeling
Background:
- Language evolution theories face challenges in explaining emergent linguistic structures.
- Understanding the interplay between genetic and cultural factors is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To survey recent research on language evolution focusing on cultural evolution models.
- To explore how agent-based simulations and robotic experiments test these models.
Main Methods:
- Review of agent-based computational simulations.
- Analysis of robotic experiments in language evolution research.
- Discussion of models for convention sharing, conceptual coordination, and hierarchical structure emergence.
Main Results:
- Cultural evolution is a more potent force in language development than previously assumed.
- Models successfully explain the emergence of shared conventions and coordinated concepts.
- Hierarchical linguistic structures can arise through cultural transmission.
Conclusions:
- Reduced reliance on innate structures or biases is necessary for language evolution theories.
- Cultural evolutionary processes play a more significant role than genetic evolution.
- Future research should leverage computational and experimental approaches to study language evolution.
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