Lexical Diffusion and Biological Evolution -Based on the Historical Change of English

从脑-语言共同进化的角度探讨了词汇扩散机制与生物进化的相似之处。(1)词汇变化根据《古英语同义词典》（1995）和Roget的《国际同义词典》（1995）的数据，词汇变化是通过语义域内近义词之间的竞争和选择而发生的。此外，我还解释了词汇变化是对符号交际中脑语言共同进化的认知选择约束的反应。我还尝试设计了一个动态系统，通过神经网络可以添加、传输和删除单词。(2)语序变化笔者以古英语后期的O（宾语）V（动词）和带后名定语的定语从句为研究对象，认为定语从句的演变与中心嵌入引起的感知因素之间的相互作用驱动了定语从句向定语从句的变化。我已经证明，助记和注意力阈值倾向于阻止特定的组合和顺序计算集。此外，我试图证明中心嵌入直接影响基于连接主义模拟的语言的可学习性。(3)元音系统的进化利用遗传算法，基于感知对比和易于产生的适应度函数，模拟了元音系统从随机状态进化到最优状态的自适应过程。模拟不仅显示了元音系统的出现，而且还显示了语音群落中变体形式的竞争，例如古英语和中古英语中低元音的变化。

I investigated the parallels in the mechanism of lexical diffusion and biological evolution from the perspective of brain-language coevolution.(1) Lexical changeI have shown, based on the data from Thesaurus of Old English (1995) and Roget's International Thesaurus (1995), that lexical change occurs through competition and selection among near-synonyms within semantic fields. Furthermore, I have explained that lexical change is a response to cognitive selectional constraints operating on brain-language coevolution in symbolic communication. I have also tried to design a dynamic system where words may be added, transmitted and deleted by the neural network.(2) Word order changeI have claimed, based on the O(bject)V(erb) and VO with a postnominal relative clause in late Old English, that the interaction between the evolution of relative clauses and perceptual factors caused by center-embeddings actuated the change from OV to VO.I have shown that the mnemonic and attentional threshold tends to prevent the particular sets of combinatorial and sequential calculations. Furthermore, I have tried to demonstrate that center-embeddings directly affect the learnability of a language based on the connectionist simulations.(3) Evolution of vowel systemUsing Genetic Algorithm, I have simulated the adaptive process of vowel system evolution from random states to optimal states, based on fitness functions in terms of perceptual contrast and ease of production. The simulation shows not only the emergence of the vowel systems, but also the competition of variant forms in the speech community, e.g., the variation of the low vowels in Old English and Middle English.