Language dynamics is a rapidly growing field that focuses on all processes related to the evolution, emergence, change, competition and extinction of languages. One of the major outcomes from this field of research is that language can be viewed as a complex adaptive dynamical system that evolves through the process of self-organization and self-regulation. According to this viewpoint, a community of language users can be seen as a dynamical system that collectively solves the problem of developing a shared communication framework through the back-and-forth signaling between the participating individuals.
Our group is interested in the interaction of the cognitive and socio-cultural factors that play a key role in language dynamics with a special focus on how a population develops a shared set of names (Naming Game), categories (Category Game), or rules (Rule Dynamics) from scratch. The basic framework is grounded in theories of Language Games, but frequently borrows concepts and methods from the areas of statistical physics and complex systems science. These areas have proven to be extremely powerful in providing various quantitative insights into language emergence and evolution.
2014 |
Pucci, Lorenzo; Gravino, Pietro; Servedio, Vito DP Modeling the emergence of a new language: Naming Game with hybridization (Incollection) Self-Organizing Systems, pp. 78–89, Springer, 2014. (BibTeX) @incollection{pucci2014modeling,
title = {Modeling the emergence of a new language: Naming Game with hybridization},
author = {Pucci, Lorenzo and Gravino, Pietro and Servedio, Vito DP},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
booktitle = {Self-Organizing Systems},
pages = {78--89},
publisher = {Springer},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
|
Cuskley, Christine; Pugliese, Martina; Castellano, Claudio; Colaiori, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca Internal and External Dynamics in Language: Evidence from Verb Regularity in a Historical Corpus of English (Journal Article) PLoS ONE, 9 , 2014. (Abstract | Links | BibTeX) @article{,
title = {Internal and External Dynamics in Language: Evidence from Verb Regularity in a Historical Corpus of English},
author = {Christine F. Cuskley and Martina Pugliese and Claudio Castellano and Francesca Colaiori and Vittorio Loreto and Francesca Tria},
url = {http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0102882},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
journal = {PLoS ONE},
volume = {9},
publisher = {Public Library of Science},
abstract = {Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language. © 2014 Cuskley et al.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language. © 2014 Cuskley et al.
|
Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca Language games: Comment on "Modelling language evolution: Examples and predictions" by Tao Gong, Lan Shuai, Menghan Zhang (Journal Article) Physics of Life Reviews, 11 (2), pp. 311 - 312, 2014, ISSN: 1571-0645. (Links | BibTeX) @article{Loreto_2014_physics_life,
title = {Language games: Comment on "Modelling language evolution: Examples and predictions" by Tao Gong, Lan Shuai, Menghan Zhang},
author = {Vittorio Loreto and Francesca Tria},
url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064514000074},
issn = {1571-0645},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
journal = {Physics of Life Reviews},
volume = {11},
number = {2},
pages = {311 - 312},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
|
Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca Language Games. Comment on "Modeling language evolution: examples and predictions" by Tao Gong (Journal Article) PHYSICS OF LIFE REVIEWS, 11 , pp. 311–312, 2014. (Links | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Language Games. Comment on "Modeling language evolution: examples and predictions" by Tao Gong},
author = {Vittorio Loreto and Francesca Tria},
url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064514000074},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
journal = {PHYSICS OF LIFE REVIEWS},
volume = {11},
pages = {311--312},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
|
2013 |
Maity, Suman Kalyan; Mukherjee, Animesh; Tria, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio Emergence of fast agreement in an overhearing population: The case of the naming game (Journal Article) EUROPHYSICS LETTERS, 101 , 2013. (Abstract | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Emergence of fast agreement in an overhearing population: The case of the naming game},
author = {Suman Kalyan Maity and Animesh Mukherjee and Francesca Tria and Vittorio Loreto},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
journal = {EUROPHYSICS LETTERS},
volume = {101},
abstract = {The naming game (NG) describes the agreement dynamics of a population of N agents interacting locally in pairs leading to the emergence of a shared vocabulary. This model has its relevance in the novel fields of semiotic dynamics and specifically to opinion formation and language evolution. The application of this model ranges from wireless sensor networks as spreading algorithms, leader election algorithms to user-based social tagging systems. In this paper, we introduce the concept of overhearing (i.e., at every time step of the game, a random set of N-delta individuals are chosen from the population who overhear the transmitted word from the speaker and accordingly reshape their inventories). When delta = 0 one recovers the behavior of the original NG. As one increases delta, the population of agents reaches a faster agreement with a significantly low-memory requirement. The convergence time to reach global consensus scales as log N as delta approaches 1. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The naming game (NG) describes the agreement dynamics of a population of N agents interacting locally in pairs leading to the emergence of a shared vocabulary. This model has its relevance in the novel fields of semiotic dynamics and specifically to opinion formation and language evolution. The application of this model ranges from wireless sensor networks as spreading algorithms, leader election algorithms to user-based social tagging systems. In this paper, we introduce the concept of overhearing (i.e., at every time step of the game, a random set of N-delta individuals are chosen from the population who overhear the transmitted word from the speaker and accordingly reshape their inventories). When delta = 0 one recovers the behavior of the original NG. As one increases delta, the population of agents reaches a faster agreement with a significantly low-memory requirement. The convergence time to reach global consensus scales as log N as delta approaches 1. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2013
|