Combining Evolutionary Algorithms and Language Games to Simulate Language Emergence

Abstract

This thesis is focused on naming games and other language games and how they can be used to simulate the emergence of human languages.

One specific naming game model proposed in the literature is reviewed and examined in detail. It is successfully reimplemented with the intention of verifying the results presented in the original article. The resulting implementation serves as a starting point for the development of new naming game model.

The proposed new model incorporates elements known from evolutionary algorithms into the naming game framework. The model is implemented and used for simulations of language evolution in several scenarios. The results are discussed in relation to other naming game models and human language evolution.

The thesis is concluded with a summary of what has been achieved and an outline of possible areas for future work in the field.