Some thoughts on the stability of linguistic universals: a naive beginning.

Dr. Mike Kalish

Institute of Cognitive Science

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

Abstract

Mathematical results from Markov chains suggest that the diffusion of knowledge through intergenerational transmission should result in convergence to the prior, if the agents involved are Bayesian. Evidence from experiments with human participants suggests that this is a reasonable approach to human cultural evolution. I'll attempt to examine the consequences of accepting this view of iterated learning for the spatial distribution of languages, considered as strategies in an evolutionary game.