How to create a human communication system: A theoretical model

Abstract

Following a synthesis of naturalistic and experimental studies of language creation, we propose a theoretical model that describes the process through which human communication systems might arise and evolve. Three key processes are proposed that give rise to effective, efficient and shared human communication systems: 1) motivated signs that directly resemble their meaning facilitate cognitive alignment, improving communication success; 2) behavioral alignment onto an inventory of shared sign-to-meaning mappings bolsters cognitive alignment between interacting partners; 3) sign refinement, through interactive feedback, enhances the efficiency of the evolving communication system. By integrating the findings across a range of diverse studies, we propose a theoretical model of the process through which the earliest human communication systems might have arisen and evolved. Importantly, because our model is not bound to a single modality it can describe the creation of shared sign systems across a range of contexts, informing theories of language creation and evolution.

Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

“…One possibility is that adults have a better insight into the pragmatic requirement that interlocutors need to be able to map signals onto meanings, which is likely to drive what Lister & Fay (2017) termed the creation of 'motivated signs'.…”

“…Finally, children may be less adept at aligning their own signals with those of their interlocutor, as our findings suggest. Lister & Fay (2017) propose that behavioural alignment drives cognitive alignment such that when interlocutors copy signals produced by their communication partners this will gradually lead to the establishment of shared cognitive representations. However, behavioural alignment requires monitoring of the match between one's own and the interlocutor's productions, to compute an error term in cases of mismatch, and to adjust subsequent productions to minimise this error term.…”

Innovation and enculturation in child communication: a cross-sectional study

“…This gives rise to a tension between sign innovation and alignment. One way to resolve this tension is through the production of iconic signs, which share a direct resemblance to their referent and so can be understood without prior knowledge (Lister & Fay, 2017). Another way to resolve this tension is through the creation of enculturated signs – signs that are mutually intelligible to members of the same linguistic community because of their shared cultural knowledge.…”

“…Language use is a joint activity that occurs between people, the goal of which is cognitive alignment (e.g. Fusaroli, Rączaszek-Leonardi & Tylén, 2014; Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs, 1986; Garrod & Pickering, 2004; 2009, Lister & Fay, 2017). Cognitive alignment is enabled by behaviour alignment.…”

Amount of Learning and Signal Stability Modulate Emergence of Combinatorial Structure and Iconicity in Novel Signaling Systems

“…Referential communication studies in which participants were asked to memorize or negotiate a set of novel signals showed that for some signaling systems, e.g. drawings or gestures, absolute iconicity can emerge right from the start (Fay et al, 2014a,b;Motamedi et al, 2019), and the iconic signals subsequently become simplified and conventionalized with repeated use (Lister & Fay, 2017). For other signaling systems like Leap Motion (Little et al, 2017) or binary tone sequences (Kempe et al, 2019), where physical resemblance between signal and meaning space is limited, emergence of relative iconicity requires transmission over several generations as it takes time for users to find suitable and well-motivated mappings between signal features and relevant meaning dimensions, e.g.…”