The evolution of case grammar
About this ebook
Ever since Panini (4th Century BC), case has claimed a central role in linguistic theory and continues to do so today. However, despite centuries worth of research, case has yet to reveal its most important secrets.
This book offers breakthrough explanations for the understanding of case through agent-based experiments in cultural language evolution. The experiments demonstrate that case systems may emerge because they have a selective advantage for communication: they reduce the cognitive effort that listeners need for semantic interpretation, while at the same time limiting the cognitive resources required for doing so.
About the author
Remi van Trijp is heading the Language Research unit at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris. He is one of the chief developers of Fluid Construction Grammar. Our mission is to shed new light on one of the most fascinating mysteries of humankind: language. How is it possible that children are able to master the complex structures of the world's languages so fast, and how are we able to process these structures so rapidly? How can humans possibly cope with all the variation and the dynamic changes observed in language usage? Through an 'understanding-by-building' approach, we try to answer these questions by developing experiments that combine techniques from computational linguistics, artificial intelligence and robotics.
