From natural to conventional word order: iconicity, simplicity and the mechanisms of linguistic evolution

从自然词序到常规词序：象似性、简单性和语言演化机制

• 批准号: ES/R011869/1
• 负责人: Simon Kirby
• 金额: $ 65.32万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FR011869%2F1
• 关键词: natural; conventional; word; order; iconicity

All languages have systematic structure, which allows us to communicate our thoughts. Where does this linguistic structure come from? Do the origins lie in the way humans think, or are the structures we find in languages the result of cultural processes like interaction and learning? There is increasing recognition that both individual and cultural processes play a role in the evolution of language, but it is not clear how these interact. We will provide new insights into these central questions of language evolution by conducting a series of laboratory experiments looking at the emergence of miniature artificial languages in the visual-gestural modality (artificial sign languages), comparing our results to data from naturally occurring sign languages, and extending our investigation to two other modalities: the graphical (using graphical icons) and the vocal (using iconic sounds).In the first strand, we start from improvisation: how do people convey information when they cannot use the languages they know? In experiments where participants convey information using only their body and no speech, we have found that they do not use the word order of their native language. Instead the order depends on the meaning being conveyed. We call this meaning-dependent pattern 'natural order': it represents preferences in individuals when they improvise one-off solutions to communication problems. Real languages are not one-off solutions to communication problems but instead have been used in interaction, and transmitted through learning over many generations. We will investigate what happens to natural word order (the result of improvisation) when it is learned by new individuals, and used in interaction. Natural word order can vary from meaning to meaning, however languages typically use a conventional order systematically across meanings. We hypothesise that this is due to a learning bias favouring simple systems. Accordingly, we will conduct artificial sign language learning experiments, to investigate whether word order in a system becomes more consistent when it is learned. Moreover, it is known that when individuals interact, structural priming occurs: individuals are likely to repeat structures that have just occurred in conversation. In an improvised gesture study that implements communicative interaction, we will investigate how word order variability is affected by priming. These experiments together will uncover how learning and interaction contribute to the process that takes us from improvised utterances to a linguistic system. Conducting laboratory experiments allows us to study learning and interaction in detail in a controlled setting. However, pairing laboratory work with an investigation of the same phenomena in a naturalistic context would broaden the empirical basis of our findings. Using the gestural modality in the lab allows us to build a bridge between experimental work and the study of existing sign languages. In the second strand of the project we will examine word order in British and German Sign Language in order to see how preferences for naturalness and simplicity are shaped by learning and interaction, in large populations, over longer periods of time.Lastly, in a suite of innovative experiments, we will compare improvised gesture to the graphical modality (where participants manipulate iconic signs) and the vocal modality (where participants produce sounds, but not words, to convey information). Looking at improvisation in these different modalities will allow us to test the generality of our previous results from gesture experiments, and discover the affordances of different modalities with respect to iconicity (resemblance-based mappings between form and meaning). Together, our multi-modal experiments and sign language studies will provide a new way to look at the mechanisms that create structured languages.

所有的语言都有系统的结构，这使我们能够交流我们的思想。这种语言结构从何而来？是源于人类的思维方式，还是我们在语言中发现的结构是互动和学习等文化过程的结果？人们越来越认识到，个人和文化过程在语言的演变中发挥着作用，但尚不清楚它们如何相互作用。我们将通过进行一系列实验室实验来观察微型人工语言在视觉-手势模态中的出现，从而为语言进化的这些核心问题提供新的见解（人工手语），将我们的结果与自然发生的手语数据进行比较，并将我们的调查扩展到其他两种模式：图形（使用图形图标）和声音（使用图标声音）。在第一条链中，我们从即兴创作开始：当人们不能使用他们所知道的语言时，他们如何传达信息？在实验中，参与者只使用身体而不使用语言来传达信息，我们发现他们不使用母语的词序。相反，顺序取决于所传达的含义。我们称这种依赖意义的模式为“自然秩序”：它代表了个体在即兴发挥一次性解决沟通问题时的偏好。真实的语言并不是解决交流问题的一次性解决方案，而是用于互动，并通过学习传播了许多代。我们将研究当自然语序（即兴创作的结果）被新的个体学习并用于互动时会发生什么。自然的语序可能因意义而异，然而语言通常在意义之间系统地使用约定的顺序。我们假设这是由于学习偏向于简单的系统。因此，我们将进行人工手语学习实验，以研究系统中的语序在学习时是否变得更加一致。此外，人们知道，当个体互动时，结构启动发生：个体很可能重复刚刚在对话中发生的结构。在一个即兴手势的研究，实现了沟通的互动，我们将探讨如何词序变异性的影响，启动。这些实验将揭示学习和互动如何有助于将我们从即兴话语带到语言系统的过程。进行实验室实验使我们能够在受控环境中详细研究学习和互动。然而，将实验室工作与在自然主义背景下对相同现象的调查相结合，将拓宽我们发现的经验基础。在实验室中使用手势模态使我们能够在实验工作和现有手语研究之间建立桥梁。在项目的第二部分中，我们将研究英国和德国手语中的语序，以了解在大规模人群中，在较长时间内，学习和互动如何塑造对自然和简单的偏好。我们将比较即兴的手势，（参与者操纵标志性符号）和声音模态（参与者发出声音，而不是文字，以传达信息）。在这些不同的模态中观察即兴创作将使我们能够测试我们以前的手势实验结果的一般性，并发现不同模态在象似性（形式和意义之间基于相似性的映射）方面的启示。总之，我们的多模态实验和手语研究将提供一种新的方式来看待创建结构化语言的机制。

项目成果

Syntactic harmony arises from a domain-general learning bias

句法和谐源于领域通用学习偏差

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Cognitive Diversity, CogSci 2022
• 作者: Culbertson J.

Adjective position and referential efficiency in American Sign Language: Effects of adjective semantics, sign type and age of sign exposure

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jml.2022.104348
• 发表时间: 2022-06-09
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE
• 影响因子: 4.3
• 作者: Rubio-Fernandez，Paula;Wienholz，Anne;Lieberman，Amy M.
• 通讯作者: Lieberman，Amy M.

A cross-linguistic comparison of reference across five signed languages

五种手语参考的跨语言比较

• DOI: 10.1515/lingty-2021-0057
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Linguistic Typology
• 影响因子: 2
• 作者: Ferrara L

The emergence of systematic argument distinctions in artificial sign languages

人工手语中系统论证区别的出现

• DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzab002
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Language Evolution
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Motamedi Y

From improvisation to learning: how naturalness and systematicity shape language evolution

从即兴创作到学习：自然性和系统性如何塑造语言演变

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/7ed89
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Motamedi Y