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On the Evolution of Compositional Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jeffrey A. Barrett ,
Calvin Cochran  and
Brian Skyrms
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Abstract

We present here a hierarchical model for the evolution of compositional language. The model has the structure of a two-sender/one-receiver Lewis signaling game augmented with executive agents who may learn to influence the behavior of the basic senders and receiver. The model shows how functional agents might coevolve representational roles even as they evolve a reliable compositional language in the context of costly signaling. When successful, the evolved language captures both the compositional structure of properties in the world and the compositional structure of successful actions involving those properties.

Type
Formal Epistemology and Game Theory
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 87 , Issue 5: PSA 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II Symposia Papers , December 2020 , pp. 910 - 920
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

Correction: This article was reposted on December 24, 2020, to replace figure 4 and change “interested” to “uninterested” in footnote 1.

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