Language evolution seminar

Speaker: Natalia Levshina (The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics)

Title: Differential argument marking and efficiency: New typological and experimental evidence

Abstract: In this talk I want to discuss differential object marking as a manifestation of efficiency in language (Gibson et al. 2019). I will present the results of two experiments based on artificial languages. One involves only learning, and the other one is a communication game. This evidence supports the idea expressed by Smith and Culbertson (2020) that efficient differential marking emerges in communication, rather than in simple language learning. Moreover, the data demonstrate that differential marking can emerge solely for the purpose of distinguishing between the arguments, excluding the other motivations proposed in the literature. I will also present new cross-linguistic data that support the efficiency-related interpretation of differential marking.

Contact

Seminars are organised by the Centre for Language Evolution

Henry Conklin

Centre for Language Evolution