Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cooperation, Conceptual Spaces and the Evolution of Semantics

  • Conference paper
Symbol Grounding and Beyond (EELC 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4211))

Abstract

We start by providing an evolutionary scenario for the emergence of semantics. It is argued that the evolution of anticipatory cognition and theory of mind in the hominids opened up for cooperation about future goals. This cooperation requires symbolic communication. The meanings of the symbols are established via a “meeting of minds.” The concepts in the minds of communicating individuals are modelled as convex regions in conceptual spaces. We then outline a mathematical framework based on fixpoints in continuous mappings between conceptual spaces that can be used to model such a semantics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Winter, S.: Expectations and Linguistic Meaning. Lund University Cognitive Studies 71, Lund (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gärdenfors, P.: How Homo Became Sapiens: On the Evolution of Thinking. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dennett, D.: Consciousness Explained. Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Tomasello, M.: The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Harvard Unversity Press, Cambridge (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Harnad, S.: The Symbol Grounding Problem. Physica D 42, 335–346 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hurford, J.: The Evolution of Language and Languages. In: Dunbar, R., Knight, C., Power, C. (eds.) The Evolution of Culture, pp. 173–193. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Kirby, S.: Function, Selection and Innateness: The Emergence of Language Univerals. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Steels, L.: The Talking Heads Experiment. Laboratorium, Antwerp (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Steels, L.: Social and Cultural Learning in the Evolution of Human Communication. In: Oller, K., Griebel, U. (eds.) The Evolution of Communication Systems, pp. 69–90. MIT Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kaplan, F.: L’émergence d’un lexique dans une population d’agents autonomes. Ph. D. Thesis. Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris 6, Paris (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Vogt, P.: Bootstrapping Grounded Symbols by Minimal Autonomous Robots. Evol. of Comm. 4, 89–118 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Vogt, P.: The Emergence of Compositional Structures in Perceptually Grounded Language Games. Artif. Intell. 167, 206–242 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bischof, N.: On the Phylogeny of Human Morality. In: Stent, G. (ed.) Morality as a Biological Phenomenon, pp. 53–74. Abako, Berlin (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Bischof-Köhler, D.: Zur Phylogenese menschlicher Motivation. In: Eckensberger, L.H., Lantermann, E.D. (eds.) Emotion und Reflexivität, pp. 3–47. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Gulz, A.: The Planning of Action as a Cognitive and Biological Phenomenon. Lund University Cognitive Studies 2, Lund (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Suddendorf, T., Corballis, M.C.: Mental Time Travel and the Evolution of Human Mind. Genetic, Social and General Psychology Monographs 123, 133–167 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Mulcahy, N.J., Call, J.: Apes Save Tools for Future Use. Science 312, 1038–1040 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Osvath, M., Gärdenfors, P.: Oldowan Culture and the Evolution of Anticipatory Cognition, Lund University Cognitive Studies 121, Lund (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Tulving, E.: How Many Memory Systems are There? Am. Psychologist 40, 385–398 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Suddendorf, T., Busby, J.: Mental Time Travel in Animals? Trends in Cog. Sci. 7, 391–396 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S.: Hominin Evolution: Looking to Modern Apes for Clues. In: Quiatt, D., Itani, J. (eds.) Hominin Culture in Primate Perspective, pp. 7–49. University Press of Colorado, Niwot (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Plummer, T.: Flaked Stones and Old Bones: Biological and Cultural Evolution at the Dawn of Technology. Yearbook of Phys. Anthrop. 47, 118–164 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Brinck, I., Gärdenfors, P.: Co-operation and Communication in Apes and Humans. Mind and Lang. 18, 484–501 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Gärdenfors, P.: Cooperation and the Evolution of Symbolic Communication. In: Oller, K., Griebel, U. (eds.) The Evolution of Communication Systems, pp. 237–256. MIT Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Tomasello, M.: On the Different Origins of Symbols and Grammar. In: Christansen, M.H., Kirby, S. (eds.) Language Evolution, pp. 94–110. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Peirce, C.S.: The Collected Papers of Charles Saunders Peirce, vol. 1-4. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1931-1935)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Zlatev, J., Persson, T., Gärdenfors, P.: Bodily Mimesis as the “Missing Link” in Human Cognitive Evolution. Lund University Cognitive Studies 121, Lund (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Deacon, T.W.: The Symbolic Species. Penguin Books, London (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Langacker, R.W.: Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol. 1. Stanford University Press, Stanford (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Lakoff, G.: Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Talmy, L.: Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition. Cognitive Science 12, 49–100 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Freyd, J.: Shareability: The Social Psychology of Epistemology. Cognitive Science 7, 191–210 (1983)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Fitting, M.: Fixpoint Semantics for Logic Programming: A Survey. Theor. Comput. Sci. 278, 25–51 (2002)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  34. Kripke, S.: Outline of a Theory of Truth. J. of Phil. 72, 690–716 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Hopfield, J.J.: Neural Networks and Physical Systems with Emergent Collective Computational Abilities. Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sci. 79, 2554–2558 (1982)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  36. Lewis, D.: Convention. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Stalnaker, R.: Assertion. Syntax and Semantics 9, 315–332 (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Gärdenfors, P.: Conceptual Spaces: The Geometry of Thought. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Gallistel, C.R.: The Organization of Learning. MIT Press, Cambridge (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Hornik, K., Stinchombe, H., White, H.: Multilayer Feedforward Networks are Universal Approximators. Neural Networks 2, 359–366 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Rosch, E.: Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories. J. of Exp. Psych.: General 104, 192–233 (1975)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Rosch, E.: Prototype Classification and Logical Classification: The Two Systems. In: Scholnik, E. (ed.) New Trends in Cognitive Representation: Challenges to Piaget’s Theory, pp. 73–86. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Mervis, C., Rosch, E.: Categorization of Natural Objects. Ann. Rev. of Psychol. 32, 89–115 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Okabe, A., Boots, B., Sugihara, K.: Spatial Tessellations: Concepts and Applications of Voronoi Diagrams. John Wiley & Sons, New York (1992)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  45. Brouwer, L.E.J.: Über ein eindeutige, stetige Transformation von Flächen in sich. Mathematische Annalen blz. 69, 176–180 (1910)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  46. Jäger, G., van Rooij, R.: Language Structure: Psychological and Social constraints, Synthese (to appear)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Hutchins, E.: Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press, Cambridge (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Marchiori, D., Warglien, M.: Constructing Shared Interpretations in a Team of Intelligent Agents: The Effects of Communication Intensity and Structure. In: Terano, T., Kita, H., Kaneda, T., Arai, K., Deguchi, H. (eds.) Agent-Based Simulation: From Modeling Methodologies to Real-World Applications, Springer, Berlin (2005)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University Cognitive Science, Kungshuset, S-22222, Lund, Sweden

    Peter Gärdenfors

  2. Department of Business Economics, Ca’ Foscari Università, Venezia, Italy

    Massimo Warglien

Authors
  1. Peter Gärdenfors
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Massimo Warglien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Paul Vogt

  2. RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, 3510198, Wako-shi, Saitama, Japan

    Yuuya Sugita

  3. IRIDIA, CoDE, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Elio Tuci

  4. Adaptive Systems Research Group, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, AL10 9AB, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, U.K.

    Chrystopher Nehaniv

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Gärdenfors, P., Warglien, M. (2006). Cooperation, Conceptual Spaces and the Evolution of Semantics. In: Vogt, P., Sugita, Y., Tuci, E., Nehaniv, C. (eds) Symbol Grounding and Beyond. EELC 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4211. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11880172_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11880172_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-45769-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45771-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation