Cognition and Social Dynamics Play a Major Role in the Formation of Grammar
Cognition and Social Dynamics Play a Major Role in the Formation of Grammar
Modeling has been a useful tool for understanding the mechanisms underlying the origins and evolution of human language. This chapter describes models used to explore the role of cognition and social interaction in the formation of grammar. After providing a short overview of ongoing experiments, it discusses the kinds of structures and processes that are effective and argues that neither the grammatical structure of human languages nor the conceptual inventories expressed in language must be strongly innate. Thus, the main role of biology is to provide the powerful cognitive machinery which constitutes the basis of human intelligence as a whole. The chapter also looks at the key ingredients of socio-cognitive models, namely, a population of individuals, a world which acts as source of meaning for the agents, and a language game.
Keywords: evolution, language, socio-cognitive models, cognition, social interaction, grammar, biology, human intelligence, language game
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