Nowak M A, Komarova N L, Niyogi P
Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
Science. 2001 Jan 5;291(5501):114-8. doi: 10.1126/science.291.5501.114.
Universal grammar specifies the mechanism of language acquisition. It determines the range of grammatical hypothesis that children entertain during language learning and the procedure they use for evaluating input sentences. How universal grammar arose is a major challenge for evolutionary biology. We present a mathematical framework for the evolutionary dynamics of grammar learning. The central result is a coherence threshold, which specifies the condition for a universal grammar to induce coherent communication within a population. We study selection of grammars within the same universal grammar and competition between different universal grammars. We calculate the condition under which natural selection favors the emergence of rule-based, generative grammars that underlie complex language.
普遍语法规定了语言习得的机制。它决定了儿童在语言学习过程中所考虑的语法假设范围以及他们用于评估输入句子的程序。普遍语法是如何产生的，这是进化生物学面临的一个重大挑战。我们提出了一个用于语法学习进化动力学的数学框架。核心结果是一个连贯阈值，它规定了普遍语法在群体中诱导连贯交流的条件。我们研究了同一普遍语法内语法的选择以及不同普遍语法之间的竞争。我们计算了自然选择有利于作为复杂语言基础的基于规则的生成语法出现的条件。
