ITERATED LANGUAGE LEARNING IN CHILDREN

摘要

Due to the development of several new methodologies, it has recently becomepossible to investigate precisely the contribution of cultural evolution to theorigins of linguistic structure. For example, the Iterated Learning Model (Kirby& Hurford, 2002) provides a framework for investigating the role of repeatedcultural learning in the emergence of language. It was originally used incomputer simulations, but has recently been successfully adapted for use withadult human participants (Cornish, 2006). As the differing roles of adults andchildren in language evolution and language change are the subject of muchdebate and research (i.e. Aitchison, 1996; Bickerton, 1984), adapting thispromising framework to work with children is the next logical step.