REGULAR MORPHOLOGY AS A CULTURAL ADAPTATION:NON-UNIFORM FREQUENCY IN AN EXPERIMENTALITERATED LEARNING MODEL

摘要

One approach to explaining the origins of structure in human language seescultural transmission as a key mechanism driving the emergence of that structure(e.g., Deacon 1997). In this view, universal features of language such as compositionality are an adaptation by language to the pressure of beingsuccessfully passed on from generation to generation of language users.Crucially, this adaptation is cultural rather than biological in that it arises from languages changing rather than language users.