Paper Info
Title
Convergence analysis for collective vocabulary development
Abstract
We study how decentralized agents can develop shared vocabularies without global coordination. Answering this question can help us understand the emergence of many communication systems, from bacterial communication to human languages, as well as helping to design algorithms for supporting self-organizing information systems such as social tagging or ad-word systems for the web. We introduce a formal communication model in which senders and receivers can adapt their communicative behaviors through a type of win-stay lose-shift adaptation strategy. We find by simulations and analysis that for a given number of meanings, there exists a threshold for the number of words below which the agents can't converge to a shared vocabulary. Our finding implies that for a communication system to emerge, agents must have the capability of inventing a minimum number of words or sentences. This result also rationalizes the necessity for syntax, as a tool for generating unlimited sentences.
Year
DOI
Venue
2006
10.1145/1160633.1160890
AAMAS
Keywords
Field
DocType
decentralized agent,global coordination,communicative behavior,communication system,human language,formal communication model,bacterial communication,collective vocabulary development,ad-word system,shared vocabulary,minimum number,convergence analysis,self organization,information system,communication model
Convergence (routing),Information system,Computer science,Communications system,Models of communication,Human–computer interaction,Natural language processing,Artificial intelligence,Syntax,Vocabulary development,Existential quantification,Vocabulary,Machine learning
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
1-59593-303-4
0
0.34
References 
Authors
4
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jun Wang11099.52
Les Gasser21601261.00
Jim Houk310.70