What is a Universal? On the Explanatory Potential of Evolutionary Game Theory in Linguistics

Abstract

Natural languages are shaped by evolutionary processes, both in the sense of biological evolution of our species, and, on a much shorter time scale, by a form of cultural evolution. There are long research traditions in theoretical biology and economics (a) to model communication by means of game theory, and (b) to use game theory to study biological and cultural evolution. Drawing mostly on work by Huttegger (2007) and Pawlowitsch (2008), this chapter argues that results and methods from game theory are apt to formalize the intuitive notion of linguistic universals as emergent properties of communication.