Open AccessSignalling games: evolutionary convergence on optimality
Author(s) -
T. L. Lentz,
Reinhard Blutner
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
zas papers in linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1435-9588
DOI - 10.21248/zaspil.51.2009.375
Subject(s) - division of labour , simple (philosophy) , division (mathematics) , property (philosophy) , convergence (economics) , computer science , population , pairing , theoretical computer science , communication , epistemology , psychology , sociology , economics , mathematics , arithmetic , philosophy , demography , economic growth , physics , superconductivity , quantum mechanics , market economy
Horn's division of pragmatic labour (Horn, 1984) is a universal property of language, and amounts to the pairing of simple meanings to simple forms, and deviant meanings to complex forms. This division makes sense, but a community of language users that do not know it makes sense will still develop it after a while, because it gives optimal communication at minimal costs. This property of the division of pragmatic labour is shown by formalising it and applying it to a simple form of signalling games, which allows computer simulations to corroborate intuitions. The division of pragmatic labour is a stable communicative strategy that a population of communicating agents will converge on, and it cannot be replaced by alternative strategies once it is in place.