Combinatorial structure and iconicity in artificial whistled languages

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2013
Host editors
  • M. Knauff
  • M. Pauen
  • N. Sebanz
  • I. Wachsmuth
Book title Cooperative Minds: Social Interaction and Group Dynamics
Book subtitle Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society : Berlin, Germany, July 31-August 3, 2013
ISBN
  • 9781629930817
ISBN (electronic)
  • 9780976831891
Event 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Pages (from-to) 3669-3674
Publisher Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society
Organisations
  • Faculty of Humanities (FGw) - Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research (AIHR) - Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC)
Abstract
This article reports on an experiment in which artificial languages with whistle words for novel objects are culturally transmitted in the laboratory. The aim of this study is to investigate the origins and evolution of combinatorial structure in speech. Participants learned the whistled language and reproduced the sounds with the use of a slide whistle. Their reproductions were used as input for the next participant. Cultural transmission caused the whistled systems to become more learnable and more structured. In addition, two conditions were studied: one in which the use of iconic form-meaning mappings was possible and one in which the use of iconic map- pings was experimentally made impossible, so that we could investigate the influence of iconicity on the emergence of structure.
Document type Conference contribution
Language English
Published at http://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2013/papers/0650/index.html
Other links https://cogsci.mindmodeling.org/2013/
Downloads
paper0650 (Final published version)
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