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语言是一个复杂适应系统

清华大学 2005.10.12

王士元 William S.-Y. Wang

香港中文大学， 中央研究院wsywang@ee.cuhk.edu.hk

http://www.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/~wsywang

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复杂 适应 系统Complex

AdaptiveSystem

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• Jacob, Francois. 1977. Evolution and tinkering. Science 196.1161-1166.

• “…often without knowing what he is going to produce, … uses whatever he finds around him, old cardboards, pieces of strings, fragments of wood or metal, to make some kind of workable object.”

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• Gell-Mann, Murray. 1994. The Quark and the Jaguar. Freeman.

• What is especially hard for many people to accept is that chance plus selection pressure can lead from a simple initial condition to highly complex forms and to complex ecological communities comprising such forms. They cannot really bring themselves to believe that such evolution can take place without some kind of guiding hand, some kind of design. [316].

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ice > water > steam

words > sentences > hierarchy recursion

Major transitions

heat

complexity

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Several possible phase transitions

symbolization

segmental phonology

compositionality(Simple word order & recursion)

hierarchical structure(incl. embedding)

animal communication system

human language

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kn- > n-

knight > nightknow > no

knew > newknead > need

knot > notknave > nave

.

.

Cf: gnarl, gnome, gnaw, …acknowledge, agnostic, …

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l l l l l

裸 落 練 涼 藍果 各 柬 京 監

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舌根音消失

上古英語 k, g 0 / -n

上古漢語 k, g 0 / -l

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杜甫 丽人行1 – 6 [ 阴 - 阳 ] 17 – 26 [ 阳 - 阴 ]

新 人 尘 珍

真 匀 神 津

春 麟 巡 茵

苹 巾

伦 嗔

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W.S-Y.Wang.Feb.1973.Scientific American.

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Minimum balloons comprising 90% points from each individual tone type.The Mandarin tones are relatively compact and discretely distributed, which allows for more successful tone recognition.

Peng, Gang and Wang, W. S-Y. (2005). “Tone recognition of continuous Cantonese speech based on support vector machines.” Speech Communication, 45:49-62.

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赵元任，语言问题。 1980 ： 149

施氏食狮史

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

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赵元任，语言问题。 1980 ： 149

施氏食狮史

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事。

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广州话　　　普通话 广州话　　　普通话

眼　　　　　眼睛 鼻 鼻子耳　　　　　耳朵 杯 杯子女　　　　　女儿 被 被子仔　　　　　儿子 枱　　　　　桌子翼　　　　　翅膀 凳　　　　　凳子衫 衣服 袖　　　　　袖子纽　　　　　纽扣 袜 袜子蟹　　　　　螃蟹 橙　　　　　橙子蔗　　　　　甘蔗 竹　　　　　竹子冇　　　　　没有 篮 篮子知　　　　　知道 蚊 蚊子易　　　　　容易靓　　　　　漂亮 例子来自 陈卉 2005 。

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名无固宜，约之以命，约定俗成谓之宜。

名无固实，约之以命，约定俗成谓之实名。

名有固善，径易而不拂，谓至善名。

荀子 ca.323 BCE

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Model pair-wise interactions between agents:

– select at random a speaker and a listener

– select a meaning, mi, that speaker attempts to communicate to listener

– select an utterance, uj, with which speaker attempts to convey mi

– select a meaning, mk, that listener infers on hearing utterance uj

– determine whether the communication was successful (i.e. mi = mk)— if successful, strengthen the mappings between mi and uj

— if unsuccessful, weaken the mappings between mi / mk and uj

– repeat until system converges to some stable state (note that it doesn’t always converge!)

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Self-organization and selection in the emergence of vocabulary. J. Ke, J.W. Minett, C.-P. Au & W.S.-Y. Wang,

Complexity, 7:4:1–14, 2002 .

0.30.2

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Modeling the Emergence of the Lexicon — learning

• An example of an unsuccessful communication:Agent 1

Agent 2

This weight reduced

This weight reduced

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Modeling the Emergence of the Lexicon — example

• An example of a successful communication:Agent 1

Agent 2

This weight increased

This weight increased

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Emergence of vocabulary.

10 agents, M = U = 3, = 0.2

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Percentage of languages with various word orders. Table adapted from M.C.Baker, 2001, The Atoms of Language; data based on R.Tomlin, 1986, Basic Word Order.

SOV 45 Japanese, Turkish, Quechua

SVO 42 English, Edo, Indonesian

VSO 9 Zapotec, Welsh, Niuean

OSV 0 (Warao)

OVS 1 Hixkaryana

VOS 3 Tzotzil, Malagasy

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Gell-Mann, Murray and Merritt Ruhlen. 2005. The origin and evolution of word order. ms.

Table 1. Distribution of syntactic types in the world’s languages. The numbers after each family represents the number of languages with SOV, SVO, and VSO orders, given in that order.

World: 710-595-170

[1] Khoisan: 6-4-1 [6] Dene-Caucasian: 79-14-0[2] Congo-Saharan: 61-279-17 Basque: 1-0-0

Niger-Kordofanian: 34-223-2 Caucasian: 34-0-0Nilo-Saharan: 27-56-15 Burushaski: 1-0-0

[3] Indo-Pacific: 148-10-0 Sino-Tibetan: 33-13-0[4] Australian: 53-19-1 Ket: 1-0-0[5] Austric: 17-114-70 Na-Dene: 9-0-0

Austroasiatic: 5-22-0 [7] Nostratic-Amerind: 346-155-81Miao-Yao: 0-3-0 Afro-Asiatic: 34-33-15Daic: 1-11-0 Nostratic: 173-64-5Austronesian: 11-78-70 Eurasiatic: 151-64-5

Amerind: 139-58-61

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John has been reading

A, B, C, … are X, Y, Z, … respectively.

26Stabler, E.P. 2004. Varieties of crossing dependencies. Cognitive Science 28.699-270.

… I saw Cecilia help Henk feed the hippo.

… ik Cecilia Henk de nijlpaarden zag helpen voeren.

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Ambiguity is the property of a symbol in being understandable in more than one way. . . . A symbol is vague in so far as its borderland cases of applicability loom large in comparison with its clear cases. … A symbol is general when it is applicable to any one of a number of things whose differences are not denied or necessarily overlooked, but regarded as irrelevant in the context in which the symbol is used.

Chao, Yuenren. 1959. Ambiguity in Chinese.

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我们没有作不好的事情 吕叔湘 1984 。

叫汽车快点儿 赵元任 1959 。

鸡不吃了 赵元任 1948 。

歧义句

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X V N1 p N2 Adj

I know a man with a wooden leg called Peter

Conosco una persona con una gamba di legno chiamata Pietro

a

a

a

b

b

b

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X V p N1 Adj N2

我 认得 装了 木腿 叫 Peter 的 人

X V p Adj N1 N2

我 认得 装了 叫 Peter 的 木腿 的 人

a

a

b

b

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N1 V1 N2 V2 Adv

I saw him smile yesterday

L’ho visto sorridere ieri

a

b

a

b

b

a

Emergence ef Lengeege, p.103Emergence ef Lengeege, p.103

Thes perspecteve ellews ene te see thet vereees enemels ere smert en the weys neterel selecteen hes fevered end steped where theer lefestyle dees net reqeere e cestemezed leerneng pregrem. The hemen specees es semelerly smert en ets ewn edepteve weys end elmest emberressengly steped en ethers. The edee thet hemen leerneng evelved frem e few precesses, whech ere well ellestreted en ether enemels, te fet specees-specefec hemen needs helps te breng e new enety te the stedy ef enemel beheveer end e new premese fer ederstendeng hemen eregens.

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The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thuoght slpeling was ipmorantt!

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Hu Shih. 1933. The Chinese Renaissance. U.Chicago Press.

陈第 （ 1541-1617 ） Galileo （ 1564-1642 ）顾炎武 （ 1613-1682 ） Newton （ 1642-1727 ）钱大昕 （ 1728-1804 ） Jones （ 1746-1794 ）段玉裁（ 1735-1815 ） Darwin （ 1809-1882 ）

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Vowel merger and homophony in English.

meat meet heal heel steal steel real reel read reed feat feet seam seem