In this paper we show how a Guessing Game can be reimplemented combining two recently developed formalisms: Fluid Construction Grammar and Incremental Recruitment Language. The main difference from older experiments is that the meaning of a sentence is conceived as a semantic constraint program which the speaker wants the hearer to execute and the use of a simple grammar expressed by suffixes. ...

This paper shows how experiments on artificial language evolution can provide highly relevant results for important debates in linguistic theories. It reports on a series of experiments that investigate how semantic roles can emerge in a population of artificial embodied agents and how these agents can build a network of constructions. The experiment also includes a fully operational implementa...

concepts like ‘circle’ or ‘blue object’ are not yet defined at this stage, they have to be learned. The inventory of concepts an agent eventually learns is called the agent’s ontology. 12 CHAPTER 2. THE LANGUAGE GAME FRAMEWORK topic should best be used for describing it. For example, if it is the only red object in the context then a good description probably should include this fact. This is c...

Construction grammar theories argue that the selection and realization of a verb's arguments is largely taken care of by constructions, as opposed to lexicalist theories which constrain the argument structure of a verb in the lexicon. So far, however, no operational definition has been given which shows how this ‘fusion’ of a verb’s arguments with the roles of a construction can be achieved. Th...

One of the key properties of (natural) languages is that they are hierarchical. Phrases combine into larger phrases eventually covering complete sentences. The semantics of each phrase combine to form the complex meaning of the whole. A key question in explaining the origins and evolution of language is therefore how such hierarchical structures may originate and spread in a population. This pa...

Aspect is undoubtedly the most capricious grammatical category of the Russian language. It has often been asserted as a mystery accessible only to native speakers, leaving all the others lost in its apparently infinite clutter. Recent work in cognitive linguistics has tried to bring order to the seeming chaos of the Russian aspectual system. But these approaches have not been operationalized so...

Natural languages are fluid. New conventions may arise and there is never absolute consensus in a population. How can human language users nevertheless have such a high rate of communicative success? And how do they deal with the incomplete sentences, false starts, errors and noise that is common in normal discourse? Fluidity, ungrammaticality and error are key problems for formal descriptions ...