Evolution of language diversity: the survival of the fitness
نویسندگان
چکیده
We examined the role of fitness, commonly assumed without proof to be conferred by the mastery of language, in shaping the dynamics of language evolution. To that end, we introduced island migration (a concept borrowed from population genetics) into the shared lexicon model of communication (Nowak et al., 1999). The effect of fitness linear in language coherence was compared to a control condition of neutral drift. We found that in the neutral condition (no coherence-dependent fitness) even a small migration rate – less than 1% – suffices for one language to become dominant, albeit after a long time. In comparison, when fitness-based selection is introduced, the subpopulations stabilize quite rapidly to form several distinct languages. Our findings support the notion that language confers increased fitness. The possibility that a shared language evolved as a result of neutral drift appears less likely, unless migration rates over evolutionary times were extremely small.
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Language Diversity: Evidence For Language Fitness
In the last few years the study of language evolution has received extensive attention. Many Studies have explored the dynamics and the conditions in which a structured coherent language can emerge (e.g. Nowak 2000). These efforts have been mainly guided by the notion of natural selection, which assumes that language contributes to human fitness, and that successful communication leads to an in...
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