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The evolution of grounded spatial language
Michael Spranger
The evolution of grounded spatial language
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Contents
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This book presents groundbreaking robotic experiments on how and why spatial language evolves. It provides detailed explanations of the origins of spatial conceptualization strategies, spatial categories, landmark systems and spatial grammar by tracing the interplay of environmental conditions, communicative and cognitive pressures. The experiments discussed in this book go far beyond previous approaches in grounded language evolution. For the first time, agents can evolve not only particular lexical systems but also evolve complex conceptualization strategies underlying the emergence of category systems and compositional semantics. Moreover, many issues in cognitive science, ranging from perception and conceptualization to language processing, had to be dealt with to instantiate these experiments, so that this book contributes not only to the study of language evolution but to the investigation of the cognitive bases of spatial language as well.

Language
English
ISBN
978-3-946234-14-2
Preface
1 Introduction
1.1 Locative spatial language
1.2 A theory of language evolution
1.2.1 Language systems and language strategies
1.2.2 Selectionist theory of language evolution
1.2.3 Evolutionary explanations
1.3 Main hypothesis
1.4 Contributions
1.4.1 Evolutionary stages
1.4.2 Co-evolution of syntactic and semantic complexity
1.5 Structure of the book
1.5.1 Part I: Spatial language games and technical background
1.5.1.1 Spatial language games
1.5.1.2 Embodied cognitive semantics with IRL
1.5.1.3 Construction grammar with FCG
1.5.2 Part II: Reconstructing German locative phrases
1.5.2.1 Spatial semantics
1.5.2.2 Syntactic processing
1.5.2.3 Conceptualization of spatial scenes
1.5.2.4 Integrating syntactic and semantic processing
1.5.3 Part III: Spatial language evolution
1.5.3.1 Acquisition and formation of basic spatial category systems
1.5.3.2 Origins and alignment of spatial conceptualization strategies
1.5.3.3 Multi-word lexical systems for expressing landmarks
1.5.3.4 Grammar as a tool for disambiguating spatial phrases
I Spatial language games and technical background
2 Grounded spatial language games
2.1 Perception
2.2 Social mechanisms
3 Embodied cognitive semantics with IRL
3.1 Procedural semantics
3.2 Evaluation
3.3 Conceptualization and interpretation
3.4 Chunking
3.5 Grounding
3.6 Discussion
4 Construction Grammar with FCG
4.1 Linguistic processing
4.1.1 Transient structure
4.1.2 Constructions
4.1.3 Search
4.1.4 Design layer
4.2 Open-ended language evolution with FCG
4.3 Discussion
II Reconstructing German locative phrases
5 German locative phrases – an introduction
6 Spatial semantics
6.1 Representing spatial relations
6.1.1 Angular relations
6.1.2 Proximal relations
6.2 Applying spatial relations
6.2.1 Spatial regions and spatial relations
6.3 Frames of reference
6.4 Internal and external regions
6.5 Group-based reference
6.6 Perspective marking
6.7 Discussion
6.7.1 Functional constraints
6.7.2 Contextual factors
6.7.3 Other modeling approaches
6.7.4 Summary
7 Syntactic processing
7.1 Overview of syntactic processing
7.2 Lexical classes – lexical and functional constructions
7.2.1 Encoding type and lexical class potentials
7.2.2 Technical realization
7.2.3 Discussion
7.3 Landmarks and complements – adverbial and prepositional constructions
7.4 Linking everything together – high-level phrasal constructions
7.5 Handling case
7.5.1 Representing the state of information
7.5.2 Percolation and agreement – moving information around and unification
7.5.3 Postponing decisions
7.6 Summary
8 Semantic processing
8.1 Factors influencing semantic processing
8.1.1 Influence of type of communicative goal – which vs where
8.1.2 Influence of spatial contexts
8.2 Implementing spatial conceptualization
8.2.1 Ranking of semantic structure
8.2.2 Ready-made semantic structure
8.3 Categorization and discrimination
8.3.1 Strict category membership
8.3.2 Lenient approach
8.3.3 Experimental setup
8.3.4 Results
8.4 Summary
9 A whole systems approach to processing
9.1 Integrating IRL and FCG
9.2 Handling semantic ambiguity
9.2.1 Syntactic processing
9.2.1.1 Representing ambiguity in the transient structure
9.2.1.2 Constructions for processing semantic ambiguity
9.2.1.3 Handling perspective markers
9.2.2 Semantic processing
9.3 Discussion and results
III Spatial language evolution
10 Evolution of basic spatial category systems
10.1 Acquisition of lexical systems
10.1.1 Learning operators
10.1.2 Experimental setup and measures
10.1.3 Results
10.1.3.1 Acquisition of the proximal system
10.1.3.2 Acquisition of the absolute system
10.1.3.3 Co-acquisition of lexical systems
10.1.3.4 Hybrid systems
10.1.4 Implementation details
10.2 Lexicon formation
10.2.1 Experimental setup
10.2.2 Results
10.2.3 Interaction of strategies
10.2.4 Hybrid systems
10.3 Summary
11 Evolution of spatial conceptualization strategies
11.1 Alignment for landmark strategies
11.1.1 Experimental setup and measures
11.1.2 Results
11.2 Alignment for frame of reference strategies
11.2.1 Experimental setup
11.2.2 Results
11.3 Invention of conceptualization strategies
11.4 Discussion
12 Multi-word lexical systems for expressing landmarks
12.1 Invention and alignment operators
12.2 Experimental setup and results
12.3 Discussion
13 Function and evolution of locative spatial grammar
13.1 The importance of grammar
13.1.1 Experimental results
13.1.2 Factors influencing the importance of grammar
13.2 Emergence of grammatical markers
13.2.1 Invention and alignment operators
13.2.2 Experimental setup and results
13.3 Discussion
IV Conclusion
14 Conclusion and future work
14.1 Exaptation
14.2 Evolution of semantic and syntactic categories
References
Indexes
Name index
Subject index
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