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: gesture, sign language, iterated learning, cultural evolution, learning, communication
Short description: iterated learning of silent gesture leads to language-like segmentation
Abstract:
The growing body of research into homesign and emerging sign languages offers insight into languages at their earliest stages of creation and development. The study of such languages allows us to monitor the types of structures that emerge and how they develop through the first generations of a language; for example, although evidence of lexical categories in Nicaraguan Sign Language and spatial grammar in Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language appear in initial generations, these structures have been shown to take time to conventionalize and become systematized (Goldin-Meadow et al, 2014; Padden et al, 2010). Furthermore, recent laboratory experiments in which hearing participants are asked to communicate using gesture can be used to test the factors that shape languages, such as cross-linguistic word order preferences (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2008; Schouwstra and de Swart, 2014), while minimizing interference from participants’ native languages. Because of this, results can be compared to data from natural emerging sign languages.
Here, we present an iterated learning study (Kirby, Griffiths and Smith, 2014) that uses the silent gesture paradigm to investigate how the use and transmission of manual communication systems drives the emergence of systematic structure. Pairs of participants take part in an artificial language learning experiment in which they are first trained on a set of gestures and then must communicate with a partner using only gesture. In the training stage, participants are shown videos of a previous participant gesturing a concept taken from a meaning space of 24 concepts. These concepts are presented orthographically and share either a functional association (person, location, object or action) or a semantic association (based on six professions) with other items in the meaning space. For example, “hairdresser” and “hair salon” share a semantic but not a functional association, and “hairdresser” and “police officer” share a functional but not a semantic association. In the testing stage, pairs of participants take it in turns to be director (the gesturer) and matcher (the interpreter). The director is presented with a concept from the meaning space and must communicate that
concept to their partner using only gesture (presented via video streaming between computers in two separate experiment booths). The matcher then attempts to match their partner’s gesture to the correct item from the meaning space, presented as a grid of lexical items.
We use both a gesture coding system as well as direct video frame analysis to produce a set of measures capturing the presence of systematic structure in the sets of gestures our participants produce. Our data show three main results concerning the structures that emerge: 1. The entropy of gesture shapes used by participants reduces over time, suggesting that participants increasingly re-use and re-combine gestures from a smaller pool of gesture shapes; 2. The gestural systems become more efficient over time as the range of movement used by participants reduces; 3. Markers for functional categories in the meaning space emerge over generations in the evolution of the gestural systems, such as a roof gesture used to signal the location category, or a point at the director’s body to signal the person category. These results suggest that, as the systems are used in communication and transmitted through generations, gestures develop from pantomimes to conventionalized signs that demonstrate language-like segmentation through the marking of functional categories. Our results also indicate that the gestures produced by participants become more learnable as the systems are transmitted to naïve learners, and that participants in later generations become increasingly aligned with their communication partner. We suggest that the need for learnable and efficient communicative systems may drive the emergence of structure in the gestures our participants produce.
References
Goldin-Meadow, S., Brentari, D., Coppola, M., Horton, L., & Senghas, A. (2014). Watching language grow in the manual modality: Nominals, predicates, and handshapes. Cognition, 136C, 381–395.
Goldin-Meadow, S., So, W. C., Ozyürek, A., & Mylander, C. (2008). The natural order of events: how speakers of different languages represent events nonverbally. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(27), 9163–8.
Kirby, S., Griffiths, T., & Smith, K. (2014). Iterated learning and the evolution of language. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 28C, 108–114.
Padden, C., Meir, I., Aronoff, M., & Sandler, W. (2010). The grammar of space in two new sign languages. Sign Languages: A Cambridge Language Survey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 570–592.
Schouwstra, M., & de Swart, H. (2014). The semantic origins of word order. Cognition, 131(3), 431–6.
Citation:
Motamedi Y., Schouwstra M., Smith K. and Kirby S. (2016). Linguistic Structure Emerges In The Cultural Evolution Of Artificial Sign 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/27.html