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.
2013 |
Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca Consensus in language dynamics: naming, categorizing and blending (Incollection) Shi, Feng; (Eds.), Gang Peng (Ed.): Festschrift in honor of Prof. William S-Y. Wang's 80th birthday, 2013. (BibTeX) @incollection{b,
title = {Consensus in language dynamics: naming, categorizing and blending},
author = {Vittorio Loreto and Francesca Tria},
editor = {Feng Shi and Gang Peng (Eds.)},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
booktitle = {Festschrift in honor of Prof. William S-Y. Wang's 80th birthday},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
|
2012 |
Gravino, Pietro; Servedio, Vito; Barrat, Alain; Loreto, Vittorio Complex structures and semantics in free word association (Journal Article) ADVANCES IN COMPLEX SYSTEM, 15 , pp. 1250054–1250075, 2012. (Abstract | Links | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Complex structures and semantics in free word association},
author = {Pietro Gravino and Vito D.P. Servedio and Alain Barrat and Vittorio Loreto},
url = {http://www.worldscinet.com/acs/15/1503n04/S0219525912500543.html, http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84861899272&partnerID=65&md5=4d6ecfe66508c0a3cf8bba8dae67c997
http://samarcanda.phys.uniroma1.it/vittorioloreto/PAPERS/2012/S0219525912500543.pdf},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {ADVANCES IN COMPLEX SYSTEM},
volume = {15},
pages = {1250054--1250075},
publisher = {WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD},
abstract = {We investigate the directed and weighted complex network of free word associations in which players write a word in response to another word given as input. We analyze in details two large datasets resulting from two very different experiments: On the one hand the massive multiplayer web-based Word Association Game known as Human Brain Cloud, and on the other hand the South Florida Free Association Norms experiment. In both cases, the networks of associations exhibit quite robust properties like the small world property, a slight assortativity and a strong asymmetry between in-degree and out-degree distributions. A particularly interesting result concerns the existence of a characteristic scale for the word association process, arguably related to specific conceptual contexts for each word. After mapping, the Human Brain Cloud network onto the WordNet semantics network, we point out the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying word associations when they are represented as paths in an underlying semantic network. We derive in particular an expression describing the growth of the HBC graph and we highlight the existence of a characteristic scale for the word association process.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
We investigate the directed and weighted complex network of free word associations in which players write a word in response to another word given as input. We analyze in details two large datasets resulting from two very different experiments: On the one hand the massive multiplayer web-based Word Association Game known as Human Brain Cloud, and on the other hand the South Florida Free Association Norms experiment. In both cases, the networks of associations exhibit quite robust properties like the small world property, a slight assortativity and a strong asymmetry between in-degree and out-degree distributions. A particularly interesting result concerns the existence of a characteristic scale for the word association process, arguably related to specific conceptual contexts for each word. After mapping, the Human Brain Cloud network onto the WordNet semantics network, we point out the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying word associations when they are represented as paths in an underlying semantic network. We derive in particular an expression describing the growth of the HBC graph and we highlight the existence of a characteristic scale for the word association process. |
Gong, Tao; Baronchelli, Andrea; Puglisi, Andrea; Loreto, Vittorio Exploring the roles of complex networks in linguistic categorization (Journal Article) ARTIFICIAL LIFE, 18 (1) , pp. 107–121, 2012. (Abstract | Links | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Exploring the roles of complex networks in linguistic categorization},
author = {Tao Gong and Andrea Baronchelli and Andrea Puglisi and Vittorio Loreto},
url = {http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/artl_a_00051, http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84455212316&partnerID=65&md5=758e5307761080b1252443baf9d08abf, http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=000298413600005&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=0c7ff228ccbaaa74236f48834a34396a},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {ARTIFICIAL LIFE},
volume = {18 (1)},
pages = {107--121},
publisher = {MIT PRESS, 55 HAYWARD STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02142 USA},
abstract = {This article adopts the category game model, which simulates the origins and evolution of linguistic categories in a group of artificial agents, to evaluate the effect of social structure on linguistic categorization. Based on the simulation results in a number of typical networks, we examine the isolating and collective effects of some structural features, including average degree, shortcuts, and level of centrality, on the categorization process. This study extends the previous simulations mainly on lexical evolution, and illustrates a general framework to systematically explore the effect of social structure on language evolution.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article adopts the category game model, which simulates the origins and evolution of linguistic categories in a group of artificial agents, to evaluate the effect of social structure on linguistic categorization. Based on the simulation results in a number of typical networks, we examine the isolating and collective effects of some structural features, including average degree, shortcuts, and level of centrality, on the categorization process. This study extends the previous simulations mainly on lexical evolution, and illustrates a general framework to systematically explore the effect of social structure on language evolution. |
Baronchelli, Andrea; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca Language Dynamics (Journal Article) ADVANCES IN COMPLEX SYSTEM, 15 , pp. 1203002–12030011, 2012. (Abstract | Links | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Language Dynamics},
author = {Andrea Baronchelli and Vittorio Loreto and Francesca Tria},
url = {http://www.worldscinet.com/acs/15/1503n04/S0219525912030026.html
http://samarcanda.phys.uniroma1.it/vittorioloreto/PAPERS/2005/Baronchelli_EurJourPhys_2005.pdf},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {ADVANCES IN COMPLEX SYSTEM},
volume = {15},
pages = {1203002--12030011},
publisher = {WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD},
abstract = {Thirty authors of different disciplines, ranging from cognitive science and linguistics to mathematics and physics, address the topic of language origin and evolution. Language dynamics is investigated through an interdisciplinary effort, involving field and synthetic experiments, modelling and comparison of the theoretical predictions with empirical data. The result consists in new insights that significantly contribute to the ongoing debate on the origin and the evolution of language. In this Topical Issue the state of the art of this novel and fertile approach is reported by major experts of the field.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Thirty authors of different disciplines, ranging from cognitive science and linguistics to mathematics and physics, address the topic of language origin and evolution. Language dynamics is investigated through an interdisciplinary effort, involving field and synthetic experiments, modelling and comparison of the theoretical predictions with empirical data. The result consists in new insights that significantly contribute to the ongoing debate on the origin and the evolution of language. In this Topical Issue the state of the art of this novel and fertile approach is reported by major experts of the field. |
Tria, Francesca; Galantucci, Bruno; Loreto, Vittorio Naming a structured world: a cultural route to duality of patterning (Journal Article) PLOS ONE, pp. e37744-1–e37744-8, 2012. (Abstract | Links | BibTeX) @article{b,
title = {Naming a structured world: a cultural route to duality of patterning},
author = {Francesca Tria and Bruno Galantucci and Vittorio Loreto},
url = {http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0037744, http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84862532680&partnerID=65&md5=596aaa8cb591f6d2d7e2a31bcdf3213e, http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=000305652700006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=0c7ff228ccbaaa74236f48834a34396a},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {PLOS ONE},
pages = {e37744-1--e37744-8},
abstract = {The lexicons of human languages organize their units at two distinct levels. At a first combinatorial level, meaningless forms (typically referred to as phonemes) are combined into meaningful units (typically referred to as morphemes). Thanks to this, many morphemes can be obtained by relatively simple combinations of a small number of phonemes. At a second compositional level of the lexicon, morphemes are composed into larger lexical units, the meaning of which is related to the individual meanings of the composing morphemes. This duality of patterning is not a necessity for lexicons and the question remains wide open regarding how a population of individuals is able to bootstrap such a structure and the evolutionary advantages of its emergence. Here we address this question in the framework of a multi-agents model, where a population of individuals plays simple naming games in a conceptual environment modeled as a graph. We demonstrate that errors in communication as well as a blending repair strategy, which crucially exploits a shared conceptual representation of the environment, are sufficient conditions for the emergence of duality of patterning, that can thus be explained in a pure cultural way. Compositional lexicons turn out to be faster to lead to successful communication than purely combinatorial lexicons, suggesting that meaning played a crucial role in the evolution of language.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The lexicons of human languages organize their units at two distinct levels. At a first combinatorial level, meaningless forms (typically referred to as phonemes) are combined into meaningful units (typically referred to as morphemes). Thanks to this, many morphemes can be obtained by relatively simple combinations of a small number of phonemes. At a second compositional level of the lexicon, morphemes are composed into larger lexical units, the meaning of which is related to the individual meanings of the composing morphemes. This duality of patterning is not a necessity for lexicons and the question remains wide open regarding how a population of individuals is able to bootstrap such a structure and the evolutionary advantages of its emergence. Here we address this question in the framework of a multi-agents model, where a population of individuals plays simple naming games in a conceptual environment modeled as a graph. We demonstrate that errors in communication as well as a blending repair strategy, which crucially exploits a shared conceptual representation of the environment, are sufficient conditions for the emergence of duality of patterning, that can thus be explained in a pure cultural way. Compositional lexicons turn out to be faster to lead to successful communication than purely combinatorial lexicons, suggesting that meaning played a crucial role in the evolution of language. |
