The emergence of compositional grammars in artificial codes

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Games and Economic Behavior

Publication Date

3-2017

Volume

102

First Page

255

Last Page

268

Publisher

Academic Press

Keywords

Communication games, Economics of language, Experimental semiotics, Compositional grammar

Abstract

This paper experimentally explores how compositional grammars in artificial codes emerge and are sustained. In a communication game with no conflict of interest, the sender sends a message that is an arbitrary string from available symbols with no prior meaning to indicate an abstract geometrical figure to the receiver. We find strong evidence from the laboratory for the emergence of compositional grammars in the subjects' common codes that facilitate learning efficiency. Moreover, when there is a scarcity of symbols in the repertoire, a few groups in our experiments developed languages with positional compositionality, meaning the same symbol has different interpretations depending on its position in a string, whereas some other groups developed language structures that are not compositional but still efficient in communication.

DOI

10.1016/j.geb.2016.12.009

Print ISSN

08998256

E-ISSN

10902473

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Hong, F., Lim, W., & Zhao, X. (2017). The emergence of compositional grammars in artificial codes. Games and Economic Behavior, 102, 255-268. doi: 10.1016/j.geb.2016.12.009

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