Learning is the mechanism by which language is transferred from old speakers to new. Niyogi shows that the evolution of language over time will depend upon the learning procedure—that different learning algorithms may have different evolutionary consequences. He finds that the dynamics of language evolution are typically nonlinear, with bifurcations that can be seen as the natural explanatory construct for the dramatic patterns of change observed in historical linguistics. Niyogi investigates the roles of natural selection, communicative efficiency, and learning in the origin and evolution of language—in particular, whether natural selection is necessary for the emergence of shared languages.

Over the years, historical linguists have postulated several accounts of documented language change. Additionally, biologists have postulated accounts of the evolution of communication systems in the animal world. This book creates a mathematical and computational framework within which to embed those accounts, offering a research tool to aid analysis in an area in which data is often sparse and speculation often plentiful.

Acknowledgments

I The Problem

1 Introduction

II Language Learning

2 Language Acquisition: The Problem of Inductive Inference

3 Language Acquisition: A Linguistic Treatment

4 Language Acquisition: Memoryless Learning

III Language Change

5 Language Change: A Preliminary Model

6 Language Change: Multiple Languages

7 An Application to Portuguese

8 An Application to Chinese Phonology

9 A Model of Cultural Evolution and Its Application to Language

10 Variations and Case Studies

IV The Origin of Language

11 The Origin of Communicative Systems: Communicative Efficiency

12 The Origin of Communicative Systems: Linguistic Coherence and Communicative Fitness

13 The Origin of Communicative Systems: Linguistic Coherence and Social Learning

V Conclusions

14 Conclusions

Bibliography

Index