Models of language evolution and change

In the absence of direct evidence of the emergence of language, the explicitness of formal models which allow the exploration of interactions between multiple complex adaptive systems has proven to be an important tool. Computational simulations have been at the heart of the field of evolutionary linguistics for the past two decades, particularly through the language game and iterated learning paradigms, but these are now being extended and complemented in a number of directions, through formal mathematical models, language-ready robotic agents, and experimental simulations in the laboratory. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.