[SwarmFest2004] Submission for SwarmFest 2004

[Meredith L. Patterson]

Hi,

My colleagues and I would like to submit the following research abstract
for SwarmFest 2004. The paper described is currently in progress, under
the supervision of Dr. Bruno Codenotti at the University of Iowa, and
will be completed well in advance of SwarmFest.

Thanks for considering us - we look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,
Meredith L. Patterson

Using Swarm to Model Iterated Language Development Games

by Meredith L. Patterson, Robert Arens, Tristan Thiede, and Robert J. Hansen
{mlpatter, rarens, tthiede, address@hidden

Recent work by Dr. Teresa Satterfield has used Swarm to model
creolization, the development of a new language which bridges two
unrelated parent languages. We extend her approach to include a
game-theoretic model of lexical acquisition, morphological acquisition,
 and shifts in social status. Within the Swarm framework, agents
interact as speakers and listeners in a noncooperative bimatrix game
whose payoffs represent a tradeoff between language acquisition and
individual utility value. Each interaction between agents involves one
or more iterations of the game, using mixed strategies which can vary
situationally, and over the course of many iterations over the entire
swarm, the change in agents' lexical and morphological inventories
reflects the development of a creole. Change in social status is
represented as a lottery among agents who have acquired a certain degree
of language competence, requiring agents to employ delayed-gratification
strategies in order to achieve the higher utility payouts granted by
higher social status. The game and lottery representations allow for a
finer degree of control over situational variables, and will facilitate
further work in modelling other elements of synchronic and diachronic
language change, e.g. sound change and syntactic parameter shift.