8 posts · 1,033 views
Small, awkward moments. Big, unfounded linguistic theories.
Sean Roberts
8 posts
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- February 9, 2010
- 06:50 AM
- 95 views
How many words for Red?
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
The distribution of colour terms on Wikipedia correlates with the human Just Noticable Difference Curve.... Read more »
Long F, Yang Z, & Purves D. (2006) Spectral statistics in natural scenes predict hue, saturation, and brightness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(15), 6013-8. PMID: 16595630
- January 26, 2010
- 04:00 AM
- 121 views
Evolutionary Linguists announce arrival of Skynet
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
In a recent book chapter, Loreto, Baronchelli & Puglisi (2010) summarise mathematical models of language games. They minimally define a system which will allow agents to reach shared linguistic categories which describe continuous stimuli (e.g. colour). New findings include a demonstration that the number of linguistic categories will stay low, regardless of the resolution of the agents' 'eyes'. However, I was particularly struck by the last paragraph, which appears to be ominously more 6........ Read more »
Vittorio Loreto;, Andrea Baronchelli;, & Andrea Puglisi. (2009) Mathematical Modeling of Language Games. Evolution of Communication and Language in Embodied Agents, 263-281. info:/
- January 25, 2010
- 08:24 AM
- 119 views
Language Structure and Social Structure
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
Lupyan & Dale's recent article shows that social structure (e.g. population size) affects linguistic change. But can this dynamic be extended back in time to help think about the evolution of language?... Read more »
Lupyan G, Dale R. (2010) Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure. PLoS ONE, 5(1). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0008559
Honda, E., & Okanoya, K. (1999) Acoustical and Syntactical Comparisons between Songs of the White-backed Munia (Lonchura striata) and Its Domesticated Strain, the Bengalese Finch (Lonchura striata var. domestica). Zoological Science, 16(2), 319-326. DOI: 10.2108/zsj.16.319
Isbell, L. (1996) The evolution of bipedalism in hominids and reduced group size in chimpanzees: alternative responses to decreasing resource availability. Journal of Human Evolution, 30(5), 389-397. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1996.0034
- January 11, 2010
- 09:59 AM
- 105 views
Summary: Grassman & Tomasello (2010)
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
Grassman & Tomasello (2010) question the findings of Jaswal & Hansen (2006), arguing that children primarily use pragmatic cues over linguistic conventions when trying to resolve ambiguities.... Read more »
Jaswal VK, & Hansen MB. (2006) Learning words: children disregard some pragmatic information that conflicts with mutual exclusivity. Developmental science, 9(2), 158-65. PMID: 16472316
Grassmann, S., & Tomasello, M. (2010) Young children follow pointing over words in interpreting acts of reference. Developmental Science, 13(1), 252-263. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00871.x
- January 11, 2010
- 09:46 AM
- 125 views
Mutual Exclusivity Diagrams
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
Some diagrams of experiments into the Mutual Exclusivity bias in children's word learning.... Read more »
Au TK, & Glusman M. (1990) The principle of mutual exclusivity in word learning: to honor or not to honor?. Child development, 61(5), 1474-90. PMID: 2245739
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. (2009) Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: infants' language experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic. Developmental Science, 12(5), 815-823. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00902.x
Jaswal VK, & Hansen MB. (2006) Learning words: children disregard some pragmatic information that conflicts with mutual exclusivity. Developmental science, 9(2), 158-65. PMID: 16472316
Grassmann, S., & Tomasello, M. (2010) Young children follow pointing over words in interpreting acts of reference. Developmental Science, 13(1), 252-263. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00871.x
Healey, E. and Scarabela, B. (2009) Are children willing to accept two labels for one object?. Proceedings of the Child Language Seminar. University of Reading. info:/
- January 6, 2010
- 10:05 AM
- 119 views
Inferential Models of Bilingualism
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
Inferential models of language learning specify how perceptual maps can be divided up to be labelled with words. However, no models currently allow bilingualism. Some proposals are made as to how to achieve this.... Read more »
Au TK, & Glusman M. (1990) The principle of mutual exclusivity in word learning: to honor or not to honor?. Child development, 61(5), 1474-90. PMID: 2245739
Byers-Heinlein K, & Werker JF. (2009) Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: infants' language experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic. Developmental science, 12(5), 815-23. PMID: 19702772
DEBOER, B. (2000) Self-organization in vowel systems. Journal of Phonetics, 28(4), 441-465. DOI: 10.1006/jpho.2000.0125
Grassmann S, Stracke M, & Tomasello M. (2009) Two-year-olds exclude novel objects as potential referents of novel words based on pragmatics. Cognition, 112(3), 488-93. PMID: 19616205
Healey, E. and Scarabela, B. (2009) Are children willing to accept two labels for one object?. Proceedings of the Child Language Seminar. University of Reading. info:/
Smith, A. (2005) The Inferential Transmission of Language. Adaptive Behavior, 13(4), 311-324. DOI: 10.1177/105971230501300402
- December 31, 2009
- 10:31 AM
- 164 views
Second Language Acquisition and Memory
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
A criticism on Hagen's (2008) theory of the evolution of second language acquisition. A new model offers an alternative explanation.... Read more »
L. Kirk Hagen. (2008) The Bilingual Brain: Human Evolution and Second Language Acquisition. Evolutionary Psychology, 43-63. info:/
- December 31, 2009
- 10:22 AM
- 185 views
Processing two structures simultaneously
by Sean Roberts in The Adventures of Auck
Review of Kovacs & Mehler (2009), with some data on ABA, AAB and ABB syllable structures from different languages.... Read more »
Kovacs, A., & Mehler, J. (2009) Flexible Learning of Multiple Speech Structures in Bilingual Infants. Science, 325(5940), 611-612. DOI: 10.1126/science.1173947
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