Artificial agents and natural determiners

Abstract

Language is a complex phenomenon. Utterances arise from complex interactions between semantics and grammar. Usually, semantics and grammar are studied separately from each other. This paper introduces a model that makes it possible to study the interaction between these two parts of language. The model comprises a population of agents that feature a relatively complex semantic module, and a lexicalisation module that can produce utterances from semantic representations. The language the agents use to communicate is developed through their interactions, without central control. The concrete focus of the model is on determination: whether or not the referents of an utterance are definite.