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Function Words and Context Variability

Steinert-Threlkeld, Shane (2018) Function Words and Context Variability. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Natural language expressions fall into two categories: content and function words. While function words are essential to compositional semantics, surprisingly little has been said about their emergence. In this paper, I will show that most extant approaches to the emergence of compositional signaling fail to account for the emergence of functional vocabulary. After providing a result that explains why this is so,, I will present a model and simulation results exhibiting conditions under which such vocabulary can emerge from simple learning dynamics. This model captures the intuition that function words help aid communication with a limited vocabulary in the presence of contextual variability.

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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Steinert-Threlkeld, ShaneS.N.M.Steinert-Threlkeld@uva.nl0000-0001-8906-266X
Keywords: function words; signaling games; reinforcement learning; evolution of language; neural networks
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence
Depositing User: Dr. Shane Steinert-Threlkeld
Date Deposited: 15 Nov 2018 00:17
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2018 00:17
Item ID: 15274
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence
Date: 31 October 2018
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/15274

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