Hermann Ackermann, Wolfram Ziegler
Audra Ames, Sara Wielandt, Dianne Cameron, Stan Kuczaj
David Ardell, Noelle Anderson, Bodo Winter
Rie Asano, Edward Ruoyang Shi
Mark Atkinson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Andreas Baumann, Christina Prömer, Kamil Kazmierski, Nikolaus Ritt
Christian Bentz
Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Hanne Eckhoff
Richard A. Blythe, Alistair H. Jones, Jessica Renton
Cedric Boeckx, Constantina Theofanopoulou, Antonio Benítez-Burraco
Megan Broadway, Jamie Klaus, Billie Serafin, Heidi Lyn
Jon W. Carr, Kenny Smith, Hannah Cornish, Simon Kirby
Federica Cavicchio, Livnat Leemor, Simone Shamay-Tsoory, Wendy Sandler
Zanna Clay, Jahmaira Archbold, Klaus Zuberbuhler
Katie Collier, Andrew N. Radford, Balthasar Bickel, Marta B. Manser, Simon W. Townsend
Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby, Marieke Schouwstra
Christine Cuskley, Vittorio Loreto
Christine Cuskley, Bernardo Monechi, Pietro Gravino, Vittorio Loreto
Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Sabrina Engesser, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon W. Townsend
Dankmar Enke, Roland Mühlenbernd, Igor Yanovich
Kerem Eryilmaz, Hannah Little, Bart de Boer
Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers
Maryia Fedzechkina, Becky Chu, T. Florian Jaeger, John Trueswell
Olga Feher, Kenny Smith, Elizabeth Wonnacott, Nikolaus Ritt
Piera Filippi, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Daniel Liu Bowling, Larissa Heege, Albert Newen, Onur Güntürkün, Bart de Boer
Piera Filippi, Jenna V. Congdon, John Hoang, Daniel Liu Bowling, Stephan Reber, Andrius Pašukonis, Marisa Hoeschele, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Bart de Boer, Christopher B. Sturdy, Albert Newen, Onur GÜntÜrkÜn
Molly Flaherty, Katelyn Stangl, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Marlen Fröhlich, Paul H Kuchenbuch, Gudrun Müller, Barbara Fruth, Takeshi Furuichi, Roman M Wittig, Simone Pika
Victor Gay, Daniel Hicks, Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
Andreea Geambasu, Michelle J. Spierings, Carel ten Cate, Clara C. Levelt
Matt Hall, Russell Richie, Marie Coppola
Stefan Hartmann, Peeter Tinits, Jonas Nölle, Thomas Hartmann, Michael Pleyer
Wolfram Hinzen, Joana Rosselló
Rick Janssen, Bodo Winter, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik, Sean Roberts
Rick Janssen, Dan Dediu, Scott Moisik
Jasmeen Kanwal, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Culbertson, Simon Kirby
Deborah Kerr, Kenny Smith
Buddhamas Kriengwatana, Paola Escudero, Anne Kerkhoven, Carel ten Cate
Adriano Lameira, Jeremy Kendal, Marco Gamba
Molly Lewis, Michael C. Frank
Casey Lister, Tiarn Burtenshaw, Nicolas Fay, Bradley Walker, Jeneva Ohan
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Hannah Little, Kerem Eryılmaz, Bart de Boer
Giuseppe Longobardi, Armin Buch, Andrea Ceolin, Aaron Ecay, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Irimia, Dimitris Michelioudakis, Nina Radkevich, Gerhard Jaeger
Heidi Lyn, Stephanie Jett, Megan Broadway, Mystera Samuelson
Michael Mcloughlin, Luca Lamoni, Ellen Garland, Simon Ingram, Alexis Kirke, Michael Noad, Luke Rendell, Eduardo Miranda
Adrien Meguerditchian, Damien Marie, Konstantina Margiotoudi, Scott A. Love, Alice Bertello, Romain Lacoste, Muriel Roth, Bruno Nazarian, Jean-Luc Anton, Olivier Coulon
Jérôme Michaud
Ashley Micklos
Marie Montant, Johannes Ziegler, Benny Briesemeister, Tila Brink, Bruno Wicker, Aurélie Ponz, Mireille Bonnard, Arthur Jacobs, Mario Braun
Yasamin Motamedi, Marieke Schouwstra, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Roland Mühlenbernd, Johannes Wahle
Tomoya Nakai, Kazuo Okanoya
Savithry Namboodiripad, Daniel Lenzen, Ryan Lepic, Tessa Verhoef
Alan Nielsen, Dieuwke Hupkes, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Bill Noble, Raquel Fernández
Irene M. Pepperberg, Katia Zilber-Izhar, Scott Smith
Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Bodo Winter, Dominic Massaro
Ljiljana Progovac
Andrea Ravignani, Tania Delgado, Simon Kirby
Terry Regier, Alexandra Carstensen, Charles Kemp
Lilia Rissman, Laura Horton, Molly Flaherty, Marie Coppola, Annie Senghas, Diane Brentari, Susan Goldin-Meadow
Gareth Roberts, Mariya Fedzechkina
Carmen Saldana, Simon Kirby, Kenny Smith
Carlos Santana
William Schueller, Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
Catriona Silvey, Christos Christodoulopoulos
Katie Slocombe, Stuart Watson, Anne Schel, Claudia Wilke, Emma Wallace, Leveda Cheng, Victoria West, Simon Townsend
Ruth Sonnweber, Andrea Ravignani
Michelle Spierings, Carel ten Cate
Kevin Stadler, Elyse Jamieson, Kenny Smith, Simon Kirby
Monica Tamariz, Joleana Shurley
Monica Tamariz, Jon W. Carr
Bill Thompson, Heikki Rasilo
Oksana Tkachman, Carla L. Hudson Kam
Simon Townsend, Andrew Russell, Sabrina Engesser
Francesca Tria, Vittorio Loreto, Vito Servedio, S. Mufwene Salikoko
Anu Vastenius, Jordan Zlatev, Joost Van de Weijer
Tessa Verhoef, Carol Padden, Simon Kirby
Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Arkadiusz Jasinski
Bodo Winter, David Ardell
Bodo Winter, Lynn Perry, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan
Marieke Woensdregt, Kenny Smith, Chris Cummins, Simon Kirby
Eva Zehentner, Andreas Baumann, Nikolaus Ritt, Christina Prömer
Keywords: semantic change, cultural evolution, subjectification, evolutionary game theory, diachrony, animal communication
Short description: The paper accounts for subjectification in semantic change in terms of evolutionary game theory, and argues that it is driven by mind-reading listeners, not by speakers trying to express themselves.
Abstract:
Linguistic research from the past decades has revealed a pathway in semantic change by which cultural transmission causes word meanings to become increasingly subjective, i.e. increasingly based in speakers’ beliefs and attitudes (see Davidse, Vandelanotte & Cuyckens 2010 and the references therein).
A prototypical – but far from the only – case of subjectification is the rise of ‘epistemic’ meanings (1b) in ‘deontic’ modals (1a) (Traugott 1989).
(1) a. John must work hard to survive. (objective necessity)
b. John looks tired. He must be working hard. (speaker’s subjective certainty)
While subjectification is often taken to reflect the need of speakers to express their inner selves, we consider this hypothesis as shallow and little informative. Instead, we propose an account in terms of evolutionary game theory and take subjectification to emerge through sender-receiver interactions where senders may attempt to manipulate receivers (e.g. by altering their construal of reality), while receivers may exploit signals for reading speakers’ minds (i.e. beliefs, goals and intentions) (cf. Dawkins & Krebs 1984).
In our model, interlocutors may intend or interpret a message as either objective (about external reality) or subjective (about beliefs etc.). They may be cooperative or uncooperative (at a proportion that we fix a priori at q E (0,1). Cooperative speakers are honest, uncooperative ones lie. Cooperative listeners are credulous, uncooperative ones disregard the encoded message, but try to infer hidden speaker beliefs.
The evolutionary dynamics of the populations of subjective and objective interlocutors are modeled as an asymmetric role game (Hofbauer & Sigmund 1998: 122ff.) with two positions (speaker and listener) and two strategies (subjective and objective), yielding four different behavior types (subjective speaking & subjective listening; objective speaking & subjective listening, etc.). This yields a 4-by-4 game with 16 different encounter types.
Payoffs resulting from pairwise speaker-hearer interactions are divided into four ordinal categories (no benefit/loss, small benefit/loss, medium benefit/loss, and large benefit/loss), which are numerized from 0 to +-3. Information about external reality is taken to be more valuable when true (and more harmful when false) than information about speakers’ intentional states.
For each combination of cooperative or uncooperative individuals choosing one of the available strategies in one of the two positions the payoff is determined heuristically and weighted according to the assumed proportions of cooperative and defective players.
An analysis of the resulting dynamics reveals two qualitatively different evolutionary outcomes: if the proportion of cooperative players does not ex-ceed a certain threshold (about 0.7), the behaviour type ‘objective speaking & subjective listening’ represents the only evolutionarily stable strategy-combination. Otherwise, i.e. if the proportion of cooperative speakers is extraordinarily large, the replicator dynamics exhibit a cyclic behavior where speakers switch periodically from one strategy to the other, followed by subsequent peri-odic listener-strategy adaptations.
We take this to suggest that subjectification is driven by listener’s interest in (potentially hidden) beliefs and intentions of speakers rather than by speakers’ desire to express their inner selves. At the same time, our account shows that concepts developed in the study of animal communication can be productively applied in the study of language diachrony as well.
References
Davidse, K., L. Vandelanotte & H. Cuyckens (eds.) (2010). Subjectification, intersubjectification and grammaticalization. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Hofbauer, J.; Sigmund, K. (1998): Evolutionary games and population dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krebs, J. R. & R. Dawkins. (1984). Animal signals: mind reading and manipulation. In J. R. Krebs & N. B. Davies (eds.), Behavioural ecology: An evolutionary approach, 380–402. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates.
Traugott, E. C. (1989). On the rise of epistemic meanings in English: An example of subjectification in semantic change. Language 65(1). 31–55.
Citation:
Zehentner E., Baumann A., Ritt N. and Prömer C. (2016). A Game Theoretic Account Of Semantic Subjectification In The Cultural Evolution Of Languages. In S.G. Roberts, C. Cuskley, L. McCrohon, L. Barceló-Coblijn, O. Fehér & T. Verhoef (eds.) The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference (EVOLANG11). Available online: http://evolang.org/neworleans/papers/110.html