The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Language Is a Complex Adaptive System: Position Paper
Abstract
Language has a fundamentally social function. Processes of human interaction along with domain‐general cognitive processes shape the structure and knowledge of language. Recent research in the cognitive sciences has demonstrated that patterns of use strongly affect how language is acquired, is used, and changes. These processes are not independent of one another but are facets of the same complex adaptive system (CAS). Language as a CAS involves the following key features: The system consists of multiple agents (the speakers in the speech community) interacting with one another. The system is adaptive; that is, speakers’ behavior is based on their past interactions, and current and past interactions together feed forward into future behavior. A speaker's behavior is the consequence of competing factors ranging from perceptual constraints to social motivations. The structures of language emerge from interrelated patterns of experience, social interaction, and cognitive mechanisms. The CAS approach reveals commonalities in many areas of language research, including first and second language acquisition, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, language evolution, and computational modeling.
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Self-citationApproaching human language with complex networks
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Self-citationCompression ensembles quantify aesthetic complexity and the evolution of visual art
Karjus, A., Canet Solà, M., Ohm, T., Ahnert, S. E., & Schich, M. (2023) · EPJ Data Science · doi:10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00397-3 · Cited by 32
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Does scale-free syntactic network emerge in second language learning?
Jiang, J., Yu, W., & Liu, H. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00925 · Cited by 27
Murakami, A., & Ellis, N. C. (2022) · Language Learning · doi:10.1111/lang.12500 · Cited by 26
Self-citationDistributional Semantics: Meaning Through Culture and Interaction
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Self-citationGuo, R., & Ellis, N. C. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.582259 · Cited by 12
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Metadata
- Authors
- The “Five Graces Group”, Beckner, C., Blythe, R., Bybee, J., Christiansen, M. H., Croft, W., Ellis, N. C., Holland, J., Ke, J., Larsen‐Freeman, D., & Schoenemann, T.
- Venue
- Language Learning
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-11-24
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- s1
- Pages
- 1-26
- ISSN
- 0023-8333 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9922
- OpenAlex
- W1968826646
- Cited by
- 1,147
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 563.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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