Journal of Language Evolution最新文献

{"title":"The emergence of word order and morphology in compositional languages via multigenerational signaling games","authors":"Iga Nowak, Giosuè Baggio","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW007","url":null,"abstract":"The experimental study of language change may provide novel insights into the nature of language, in particular on the role of cognitive biases and social processes in shaping grammatical and semantic structures. Here, we introduce multigenerational signaling games (MGSGs) as a new experimental paradigm for investigating how simple compositional languages emerge and change during transmission across generations in a diffusion chain, where each transmission step requires coordination between sender and receiver in a signaling game. We obtained three main results. First, we replicate and extend earlier findings by Moreno and Baggio suggesting that, in signaling games with fixed roles, mappings of signals to meanings tend to be transmitted from senders to receivers. We show that this holds for signaling games played in diffusion chains too, in which the receiver in one game becomes the sender in the next game. Second, we provide an experimental proof of concept that MGSGs are a viable laboratory model of cultural language change. Players consistently agreed upon a common signaling system after repeated signaling rounds, and the resulting code was effectively transmitted and gradually modified over generations. Third, we establish a baseline of results for further research using MGSGs. We found that the order of elements initially imposed on signals is largely maintained by successive generations. Moreover, the degree of coordination among players and the fidelity of inter-generational transmission exhibit a cumulative increase across generations. Finally, replicating a seminal result by Esper, we observed that morphological marking of semantic categories such as agent, action, and patient emerged gradually in the course of transmission.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZW007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61533965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evolutionary Syntax , by Ljiljana Progovac","authors":"R. Truswell","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW008","url":null,"abstract":"Evolutionary syntax , by Ljiljana Progovac, OUP (2015) 280 pp, £24.99.\u0000\u0000In this monograph, Progovac argues for an incremental evolution of cognitive capacities underpinning syntactic structure, with Conjoin (a binary, non-recursive operation immune to movement and embedding) anteceding recursive Merge. This distinction plays out over four stages, described in Chapters 1–4, with Merge only visible in stage 4. \u0000\u00001. Single words;\u0000\u00002. Two-word combinations, for example, Case closed ;\u0000\u00003. ‘Proto-coordination’, where linkers like English as or Mandarin de mark binary predicate–argument relations;\u0000\u00004. Specific functional categories, permitting recursive syntactic structures.\u0000\u0000Progovac’s primary evidence comes from syntactic analysis of constructions, such as those above, identified as linguistic fossils (Jackendoff 1999). However, most chapters contain sections on ‘corroborating evidence’, summarizing findings from acquisition, imaging studies, and other related fields, although the interpretation of such evidence is often inconclusive (Boeckx 2016).\u0000\u0000There are several innovations in the details. For example, the stage 2 grammar, which creates binary verb–noun (VN) combinations, is claimed to have no subject–object distinction (resulting in ‘absolutive’ grammar in Progovac’s terms). This is reflected in English and Serbian VN compounds, where a rattlesnake is a snake that rattles, while rotgut is alcohol that rots guts. Similar indeterminacy is demonstrated in Tongan and Riau Indonesian. A second novel claim is that the capacity for binary protosyntactic combination within a ‘clause’ (stage 2) is linked to binary combination of clauses (stage 2a), giving a strictly finite device which can mimic subordination to a limited extent. Likewise, linkers at stage 3 may appear between predicate and argument, or between clauses.\u0000\u0000Many of these novel accounts of individual constructions are genuinely insightful and thought-provoking. Progovac argues that constructions which look quirky and cussed from the perspective of modern syntactic theory may be elegantly analysed within the terms of less expressive models of syntax. As … rob.truswell{at}ed.ac.uk","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZW008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61534060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conference Report on Evolang 11","authors":"L. Barceló-Coblijn, Cory Cuthbertson, K. Graham, S. Hartmann, M. Pleyer","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW010","url":null,"abstract":"The 11th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (Evolang 11) was hosted at the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, USA, from 21 March to 24 March 2016. The University of Southern Mississippi organised the conference, with Heidi Lyn as Chair of the local organising committee. Over 200 delegates gathered for this second American Evolang, and were treated not only to a wide range of current research in language origins and evolution, but also to local ‘NOLA’ food and culture as well. Evolang hosted a reception at Mardi Gras World—a stylised warehouse storing numerous Mardi Gras floats and costumes, where guests were serenaded with a brass band and committee members threw beads into the amused, cocktail-sipping crowd. The conference banquet was held at the colonial-era-style Audubon Tea Room with live jazz and a swing dancing lesson led by Thom Scott-Phillips. Post-conference events included a ghost tour, swamp tours, and a plantation tour.\u0000\u0000This was the 20th anniversary of the very first Evolang, held in Edinburgh in 1996, and saw the release of the first issue of the Journal of Language Evolution . With a 20-year history, it is hardly surprising that there has been a strong ‘self-reflective’ tendency at recent Evolang conferences, as witnessed, for example, in the ‘Perspectives on Evolang’ section in the proceedings of Evolang 10 (Cartmill et al. 2014), as well as in some of the contributions in the first issue of JoLE (Dediu and de Boer 2016; Hammarstrom 2016). Something that is repeatedly mentioned in these publications is the observation that ‘work on language evolution has become much more rigorous: we are discovering methods by which questions we could formerly only speculate about can now be investigated empirically’ (de Boer 2014). These ‘self-reflective’ tendencies were also exemplified …","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZW010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61534243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Double-blind reviewing at EvoLang 11 reveals gender bias","authors":"Seán G. Roberts, T. Verhoef","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW009","url":null,"abstract":"The impact of introducing double-blind reviewing in the most recent Evolution of Language conference is assessed. The ranking of papers is compared between EvoLang 11 (double-blind review) and EvoLang 9 and 10 (single-blind review). Main effects were found for first author gender by conference. The results mirror some findings in the literature on the effects of double-blind review, suggesting that it helps reduce a bias against female authors.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61534110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying ocular morphologies in extant primates for reliable interspecific comparisons","authors":"J. García","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW004","url":null,"abstract":"Cross-examining evidence from comparative morphology has become a way to support specific hypotheses in social cognition. In particular, ocular morphology has been compared across extant primate species in order to argue that humans present a unique morphology that enables also an uniquely human array of socio-cognitive functions—including a crucial role in the acquisition and practice of linguistic abilities. Even though some of these comparisons have relied on quantifiable dimensions of ocular morphology, other aspects of the comparison have been established qualitatively, based on subjective ratings. In this article, I present a new method that intends to restrain the focus of attention to one specific perceptual aspect of ocular morphology—namely, the contrast between scleral and iridal colors, as it is thought to enable (or ease) gaze following from other individuals. The method also allows for more reliable comparisons across extant primate species, as it relies on quantifiable measurements. I exemplify the potential of this method with a three-fold comparison of three great ape species ( Pongo pygmaeus , Pongo abelii , and Homo sapiens ).","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZW004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61534186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The typology and diachrony of higher numerals in Indo-European: a phylogenetic comparative study","authors":"Andreea S. Calude, Annemarie Verkerk","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW003","url":null,"abstract":"Numerals have fascinated and mystified linguists, mathematicians and lay persons alike for centuries. The productive use of numerals (in languages where this happens) exploits recursivity to give rise to what we call the ‘the number line’. While the smaller numerals 1–10 have enjoyed intense scrutiny, the typological study of the formation of the higher numerals has received comparatively less attention. This article contains a comprehensive typological account of how languages in the Indo-European language family code numerals beyond 10 (10–99, 100s, 1,000s), the morphemes involved, and how these are ordered. We use this dataset from eighty-one Indo-European languages with phylogenetic comparative methods to propose diachronic reconstructions of these patterns in the Proto-Indo-European language. Our findings indicate that small numerals (11–19) show the widest cross-linguistic variation, and that higher numerals exhibit more consistency in both component parts and their ordering. Additionally, we show statistical evidence of correlations between the ordering of base and atom morphemes and other word order patterns (noun-postposition, noun-genitive, and verb-object order).","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZW003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61533876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring conventionalization in the manual modality","authors":"Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, R. Lepic, T. Verhoef","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZW005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZW005","url":null,"abstract":"Gestures produced by users of spoken languages differ from signs produced by users of sign languages in that gestures are more typically ad hoc and idiosyncratic, while signs are more typically conventionalized and shared within a language community. To measure how gestures may change over time as a result of the process of conventionalization, we used a social coordination game to elicit repeated silent gestures from hearing non-signers, and used Microsoft Kinect to unobtrusively track the movement of their bodies as they gestured. Our approach follows from a tradition of laboratory experiments designed to study language evolution and draws upon insights from sign language research on language emergence. Working with silent gesture, we were able to simulate and quantify hallmarks of conventionalization that have been described for sign languages, in the laboratory. With Kinect, we measured a reduction in the size of the articulatory space and a decrease in the distance traveled by the articulators, while communicative success increased between participants over time. This approach opens the door for more direct future comparisons between ad hoc gestures produced in the lab and natural sign languages in the world.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61534265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How to analyze linguistic change using mixed models, Growth Curve Analysis and Generalized Additive Modeling","authors":"Bodo Winter, Martijn B. Wieling","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZV003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZV003","url":null,"abstract":"When doing empirical studies in the field of language evolution, change over time is an inherent dimension. This tutorial introduces readers to mixed models, Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) and Generalized Additive Models (GAMs). These approaches are ideal for analyzing nonlinear change over time where there are nested dependencies, such as time points within dyad (in repeated interaction experiments) or time points within chain (in iterated learning experiments). In addition, the tutorial gives recommendations for choices about model fitting. Annotated scripts in the online [Supplementary Data][1] provide the reader with R code to serve as a springboard for the reader’s own analyses. [1]: http://jole.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1093/jole/lzv003/-/DC1","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZV003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61533186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Language evolution and climate: the case of desiccation and tone","authors":"C. Everett, Damián E. Blasi, Seán G. Roberts","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZV004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZV004","url":null,"abstract":"We make the case that, contra standard assumption in linguistic theory, the sound systems of human languages are adapted to their environment. While not conclusive, this plausible case rests on several points discussed in this work: First, human behavior is generally adaptive and the assumption that this characteristic does not extend to linguistic structure is empirically unsubstantiated. Second, animal communication systems are well known to be adaptive within species across a variety of phyla and taxa. Third, research in laryngology demonstrates clearly that ambient desiccation impacts the performance of the human vocal cords. The latter point motivates a clear, testable hypothesis with respect to the synchronic global distribution of language types. Fourth, this hypothesis is supported in our own previous work, and here we discuss new approaches being developed to further explore the hypothesis. We conclude by suggesting that the time has come to more substantively examine the possibility that linguistic sound systems are adapted to their physical ecology.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZV004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61533218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Commentary: Tone languages and laryngeal precision","authors":"D. Ladd","doi":"10.1093/JOLE/LZV014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JOLE/LZV014","url":null,"abstract":"In this response I make three distinct points. First and most important, I identify a logical premise of Everett et al.’s (2016) explanation for the correlation between humidity and complex tone, and briefly present empirical evidence that the premise is questionable. Second (and ultimately equally important), I point out that their definition of ‘complex tone’ is equivocal between two quite distinct senses. Third, I offer a speculative alternative approach to explaining the correlation. Everett et al. emphasize that they have formulated a hypothesis and tested it empirically. That is, they predict on independent grounds that tone languages should be more common where humidity is high, and then provide evidence that this prediction is valid. The logic of their prediction is as follows: They provide plenty of evidence for the first premise, and (lacking relevant specialist knowledge in statistics) I am willing to accept their demonstration of the geographical correlation that supports the conclusion. However, there is good reason to doubt the second premise. Over the course of many years, I have conducted studies in which speakers read prepared sentences under studio conditions. These studies have generally aimed to test the effect of specific structural manipulations on fundamental frequency (F0) at specific points in the utterance. For example, in one such experiment (Ladd 1988), I compared English sentences of the form A and B but C and A but B and C (where A, B , and C are short clauses), looking for (and finding) F0 differences on the accented syllables of the clauses depending on the structure. A consistent finding in all these studies is that, for any given speaker, mean F0 …","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JOLE/LZV014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61533725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}