118 posts · 100,458 views
A blog (mostly) dedicated to language, its evolution and anything else in-between.
Wintz
27 posts
Sean Roberts
65 posts
Hannah Little
0 posts
Michael
10 posts
Richard Littauer
0 posts
Kevin
1 post
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- February 22, 2012
- 08:14 AM
- 656 views
EvoLang Previews: A Bottom Up Approach to Language Evolution
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
First preview of presentations at this year's EvoLang. Here, I show that the tools you use to investigate the evolution of linguistic diversity affect the conclusions you reach.... Read more »
Abrams, D., & Strogatz, S. (2003) Linguistics: Modelling the dynamics of language death. Nature, 424(6951), 900-900. DOI: 10.1038/424900a
Burkett, D., & Griffiths, T. (2010) Iterated Learning of Multiple Languages from Multiple Teachers. The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of EvoLang 2010. info:/
- February 21, 2012
- 04:43 PM
- 747 views
Proving anything is possible: Limits of the nomothetic approach
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Preview of a poster we're presenting at Edinburgh's Digital Scholarship conference. It's increasingly easy to find correlations between social variables, so how do we identify the real links?... Read more »
Way, B., & Lieberman, M. (2010) Is there a genetic contribution to cultural differences? Collectivism, individualism and genetic markers of social sensitivity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(2-3), 203-211. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq059
Atkinson QD. (2011) Phonemic diversity supports a serial founder effect model of language expansion from Africa. Science (New York, N.Y.), 332(6027), 346-9. PMID: 21493858
EMBER, C., & EMBER, M. (2007) Climate, Econiche, and Sexuality: Influences on Sonority in Language. American Anthropologist, 109(1), 180-185. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2007.109.1.180
Lupan, G. . (2009) Language structure is partly determined by social structure. Social and Linguistic Structure. info:/
Nettle, D. (1998) Explaining Global Patterns of Language Diversity. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 17(4), 354-374. DOI: 10.1006/jaar.1998.0328
Barone, T. (2000) Is the siesta an adaptation to disease?. Human Nature, 11(3), 233-258. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-000-1012-4
- February 20, 2012
- 07:38 AM
- 634 views
Phonemic Diversity and Vanishing Phonemes: Looking for Alternative Hypotheses
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
In my last post on the vanishing phonemes debate I briefly mentioned Atkinson’s two major theoretical points: (i) that there is a link between phoneme inventory sizes, mechanisms of cultural transmission and the underlying demographic processes supporting these changes; (ii) we could develop a Serial Founder Effect (SFE) model from Africa based on the phoneme [...]... Read more »
Atkinson, Q. (2011) Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa. Science, 332(6027), 346-349. DOI: 10.1126/science.1199295
Lupyan G, & Dale R. (2010) Language structure is partly determined by social structure. PloS one, 5(1). PMID: 20098492
Trudgill, P. (2004) Linguistic and social typology: The Austronesian migrations and phoneme inventories. Linguistic Typology, 8(3), 305-320. DOI: 10.1515/lity.2004.8.3.305
Trudgill, P. (2011) Social structure and phoneme inventories. Linguistic Typology, 15(2), 155-160. DOI: 10.1515/LITY.2011.010
Kolinsky, R., Lidji, P., Peretz, I., Besson, M., & Morais, J. (2009) Processing interactions between phonology and melody: Vowels sing but consonants speak. Cognition, 112(1), 1-20. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.02.014
Munroe, R., Fought, J., & Macaulay, R. (2009) Warm Climates and Sonority Classes: Not Simply More Vowels and Fewer Consonants. Cross-Cultural Research, 43(2), 123-133. DOI: 10.1177/1069397109331485
- February 14, 2012
- 07:14 PM
- 606 views
How would you convince an undergraduate to start blogging?
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Why do you blog about your research? Why do you read other blogs? Does blogging improve your employability? Are there hidden advantages to blogging?... Read more »
Lutz Geißler, Robert Huber and Callan Bentley. (2011) The state of the Geoblogosphere – geoscience communication in the social web. geonetzwerk. info:/
- February 13, 2012
- 07:09 AM
- 642 views
Super Smart Animals
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
This new documentary about animal intelligence shares some of these elements (sandy beaches, far flung destinations), but crucially, Liz Bonnin is more than an enthusiastic observer – she is not just an engaging television presenter, but a REAL SCIENTIST.... Read more »
Pilley, J., & Reid, A. (2011) Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents. Behavioural Processes, 86(2), 184-195. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2010.11.007
- January 31, 2012
- 02:08 PM
- 527 views
You’ll never teach a monkey how to sing
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
While my posts are often less than serious, this one is slightly sillier than usual. It’s a song I wrote a while ago about animal communication. Enjoy/Endure/Evade: You can read about some of the theory that I distort with my artistic license here: Articles by Michael: Imitation in Chimpanzees , Animals learning syntax , Self-Domestication [...]... Read more »
Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL, & Marler P. (1980) Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. Science (New York, N.Y.), 210(4471), 801-3. PMID: 7433999
Seyfarth, R., & Cheney, D. (2012) Animal Cognition: Chimpanzee Alarm Calls Depend On What Others Know. Current Biology, 22(2). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.050
Haesler S, Rochefort C, Georgi B, Licznerski P, Osten P, & Scharff C. (2007) Incomplete and inaccurate vocal imitation after knockdown of FoxP2 in songbird basal ganglia nucleus Area X. PLoS biology, 5(12). PMID: 18052609
MacLarnon AM, & Hewitt GP. (1999) The evolution of human speech: the role of enhanced breathing control. American journal of physical anthropology, 109(3), 341-63. PMID: 10407464
Ottoni, E., & Izar, P. (2008) Capuchin monkey tool use: Overview and implications. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 17(4), 171-178. DOI: 10.1002/evan.20185
- January 25, 2012
- 09:24 PM
- 683 views
The Great Mystery of Vanishing Phonemes
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
It’s been well over a year since I first wrote about the relationship between phoneme inventory size and demography (see here and here). Since then, I have completed a thesis examining this relationship further, especially in the context of the relative roles of demography and tradeoffs between other linguistic subsystems (namely, a language’s lexicon and [...]... Read more »
Atkinson, Q. (2011) Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa. Science, 332(6027), 346-349. DOI: 10.1126/science.1199295
- January 3, 2012
- 07:09 AM
- 311 views
Social structure and language evolution: resolving the synthetic/analytic debate
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
How does social structure affect the way we think about the evolution of language?... Read more »
Kirby, S., Dowman, M., & Griffiths, T. (2007) Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(12), 5241-5245. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608222104
Scott-Phillips, T., & Kirby, S. (2010) Language evolution in the laboratory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(9), 411-417. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.06.006
Sorace, Antonella. (2011) Pinning down the concept of "interface" in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(33). info:/
- December 14, 2011
- 07:48 AM
- 2,899 views
The power of diversity: New Scientist recognises the growing work on social structure and linguistic structure
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
A feature article in last week’s New Scientist asks why there is so much linguistic diversity present in the world, and what are the forces that drive it. The article reads like a who’s who of the growing field of language structure and social structure. This is practically as close as my subject will come to having a pull-out section in Vanity Fair. Furthermore, it recognises the weakening grip of Chomskyan linguistics.... Read more »
David Robson. (2011) Power of Babel: Why one language isn't enough . New Scientist. info:/
- November 30, 2011
- 09:06 AM
- 403 views
Spurious correlation bonanza to mark Replicated Typo 2.0 reaching 100,000 hits
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
As we’ve shown on this blog, culturally transmitted features can be highly correlated with each other. This fact is a source of both frustration and fascination, so I’ve roped together some of my favourite investigations of cultural correlations into a correlation super-chain. Let Replicated Typo take you on trip from acacia trees to traffic accidents…... Read more »
Way, B., & Lieberman, M. (2010) Is there a genetic contribution to cultural differences? Collectivism, individualism and genetic markers of social sensitivity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(2-3), 203-211. DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq059
Atkinson QD. (2011) Phonemic diversity supports a serial founder effect model of language expansion from Africa. Science (New York, N.Y.), 332(6027), 346-9. PMID: 21493858
EMBER, C., & EMBER, M. (2007) Climate, Econiche, and Sexuality: Influences on Sonority in Language. American Anthropologist, 109(1), 180-185. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2007.109.1.180
Lupan, G. . (2009) Language structure is partly determined by social structure. Social and Linguistic Structure. info:/
Nettle, D. (1998) Explaining Global Patterns of Language Diversity. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 17(4), 354-374. DOI: 10.1006/jaar.1998.0328
Barone, T. (2000) Is the siesta an adaptation to disease?. Human Nature, 11(3), 233-258. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-000-1012-4
- November 25, 2011
- 11:33 AM
- 461 views
Reconstructing linguistic phylogenies – a tautology?
by Kevin in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Tweet So I thought I should begin my first post on here with a nice and gentle introductory sentence, but I realise that pointing out the increased use of computational phylogenetic tools on cultural and particularly linguistic data to the avid readers of this blog is probably a pretty pointless exercise. There is of course [...]... Read more »
Atkinson, Q., Meade, A., Venditti, C., Greenhill, S., & Pagel, M. (2008) Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts. Science, 319(5863), 588-588. DOI: 10.1126/science.1149683
Croft, W. (2008) Evolutionary Linguistics. Annual Review of Anthropology, 37(1), 219-234. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085156
Dunn, M., Terrill, A., Reesink, G., Foley, RA., & Levinson, SC. (2005) Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient Language History. Science, 309(5743), 2072-2075. DOI: 10.1126/science.1114615
Dunn M, Greenhill SJ, Levinson SC, & Gray RD. (2011) Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals. Nature, 473(7345), 79-82. PMID: 21490599
Gibson, E., & Fedorenko, E. (2010) Weak quantitative standards in linguistics research. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(6), 233-234. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.03.005
Gray, RD., & Atkinson, QD. (2003) Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature, 426(6965), 435-439. DOI: 10.1038/nature02029
Haspelmath, M. (2010) Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies. Language, 86(3), 663-687. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2010.0021
Holm, HJ. (2007) The new arboretum of Indo-European "trees". Can new algorithms reveal the phylogeny and even prehistory of Indo-European?. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 14(2-3), 167-214. DOI: 10.1080/09296170701378916
Nakhleh, L., Warnow, T., Ringe, D., & Evans, S. (2005) A comparison of phylogenetic reconstruction methods on an Indo-European dataset. Transactions of the Philological Society, 103(2), 171-192. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-968X.2005.00149.x
Nichols, J., & Warnow, T. (2008) Tutorial on Computational Linguistic Phylogeny. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 760-820. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00082.x
Serva, M., & Petroni, F. (2008) Indo-European languages tree by Levenshtein distance. EPL (Europhysics Letters), 81(6), 68005. DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/81/68005
Shanon, Benny. (1978) The genetic code and human language. Synthese, 39(3), 401-415. DOI: 10.1007/BF00869557
- November 12, 2011
- 04:17 PM
- 353 views
Never mind language, emotions are in a category of their own
by Hannah Little in A Replicated Typo 2.0
A new paper in the journal 'Emotion' has presented research which has implications for the evolution of language, emotion and for theories of linguistic relativity. ... Read more »
Sauter DA, Leguen O, & Haun DB. (2011) Categorical perception of emotional facial expressions does not require lexical categories. Emotion (Washington, D.C.). PMID: 22004379
- October 27, 2011
- 05:02 AM
- 631 views
Tea Leaves and Lingua Francas: Why the future is not easy to predict
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Tweet We all take comfort in our ability to project into the future. Be it through arbitrary patterns in Spring Pouchong tea leaves, or making statistical inferences about the likelihood that it will rain tomorrow, our accumulation of knowledge about the future is based on continued attempts of attaining certainty: that is, we wish to [...]... Read more »
Taleb, N. (2007) Black Swans and the Domains of Statistics. The American Statistician, 61(3), 198-200. DOI: 10.1198/000313007X219996
- October 13, 2011
- 10:48 AM
- 480 views
Robustness, Evolvability, Degeneracy and stuff like that…
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
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Much of the work I plan to do for this year involves integrating traditional and contemporary theories of language change within an evolutionary framework. In my previous post I introduced the concept of degeneracy, which, to briefly recap, refers to components that have a structure-to-function ratio of many-to-one, with a single degenerate structure being . . . → Read More: Robustness, Evolvability, Degeneracy and stuff like that…... Read more »
Cheshire, J. (2007) Discourse variation, grammaticalisation and stuff like that. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(2), 155-193. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00317.x
Whitacre, J. (2010) Degeneracy: a link between evolvability, robustness and complexity in biological systems. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, 7(1), 6. DOI: 10.1186/1742-4682-7-6
- October 5, 2011
- 12:14 PM
- 368 views
Cultural differences in lateral transmission: Phylogenetic trees are OK for Linguistics but not biology
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
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The three areas under analysis
An article in PLos ONE debunks the myth that hunter-gatherer societies borrow more words than agriculturalist societies. In doing so, it suggests that horizontal transmission is low enough for phylogenetic analyses to be a valid linguistic tool.
Lexicons from around 20% of the extant languages spoken by hunter-gatherer societies were coded for . . . → Read More: Cultural differences in lateral transmission: Phylogenetic trees are OK for Linguistics but not biology... Read more »
Claire Bowern, Patience Epps, Russell Gray, Jane Hill, Keith Hunley, Patrick McConvell, Jason Zentz. (2011) Does Lateral Transmission Obscure Inheritance in Hunter-Gatherer Languages?. PLoS ONE, 6(9). info:/doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025195
- September 29, 2011
- 01:15 PM
- 441 views
Does a Smart Phone make Smart Science?
by Hannah Little in A Replicated Typo 2.0
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A new paper in plos one, published today, has shown that experiments on human cognition needn’t be confined to the lab.
Experiments on human cognitive abilities, such as language, often rely on testing small and homogeneous groups of volunteers (mostly undergraduate students) coming to research facilities where they are asked to participate in behavioral experiments. This arrangement is not . . . → Read More: Does a Smart Phone make Smart Science?... Read more »
Stephane Dufau, Jon Andoni Dun˜ abeitia, Carmen Moret-Tatay, Aileen McGonigal, David Peeters, F.-Xavier Alario, David A. Balota, Marc Brysbaert, Manuel Carreiras, Ludovic Ferrand, Maria Ktori, Manuel Perea, Kathy Rastle, Olivier Sasburg, Melvin J. Yap, J. (2011) Smart Phone, Smart Science: How the Use of Smartphones Can Revolutionize Research in Cognitive Science. PlosOne, 6(9). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0024974
- September 24, 2011
- 06:58 PM
- 340 views
Language is not necessary for analogy
by Hannah Little in A Replicated Typo 2.0
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Analogy is a trait thought to be uniquely human and the origin is largely unknown. Recent studies have suggested that some language trained apes can find relations between relations, which is thought to be what is at the root of analogy. However, a new study in the journal Psychological Science has tested baboons using shapes . . . → Read More: Language is not necessary for analogy... Read more »
Fagot J, & Thompson RK. (2011) Generalized Relational Matching by Guinea Baboons (Papio papio) in Two-by-Two-Item Analogy Problems. Psychological science. PMID: 21934135
- September 22, 2011
- 09:14 AM
- 552 views
Degeneracy, Evolution and Language
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo 2.0
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Having had several months off, I thought I’d kick things off by looking at a topic that’s garnered considerable interest in evolutionary theory, known as degeneracy. As a concept, degeneracy is a well known characteristic of biological systems, and is found in the genetic code (many different nucleotide sequences encode a polypeptide) and immune responses (populations . . . → Read More: Degeneracy, Evolution and Language... Read more »
Edelman, G. (2001) Degeneracy and complexity in biological systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(24), 13763-13768. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.231499798
Whitacre, J. (2010) Degeneracy: a link between evolvability, robustness and complexity in biological systems. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling, 7(1), 6. DOI: 10.1186/1742-4682-7-6
- September 11, 2011
- 01:06 PM
- 759 views
Compositionality and Bilingualism
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
Languages evolve over time under a pressure to be learned by a new generation. Does learning two languages at once effect this pressure? My experiment says ... maybe.... Read more »
Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008) Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(31), 10681-10686. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707835105
- September 8, 2011
- 09:01 AM
- 862 views
The Language Evolution Tree: Yet more evidence
by Sean Roberts in A Replicated Typo 2.0
More evidence that acacia trees had a role to play in the evolution of langauge.... Read more »
Sean Geraint. (2011) Language Evolution and the Acacia Tree. Speculative Grammarian, Vol CLXII(4). info:/
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