eprintid: 10084279 rev_number: 17 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/08/42/79 datestamp: 2019-10-29 11:13:23 lastmod: 2020-09-03 06:10:07 status_changed: 2019-10-29 11:13:23 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Silvey, C creators_name: Kirby, S creators_name: Smith, K title: Communication increases category structure and alignment only when combined with cultural transmission ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: A01 divisions: B02 divisions: C07 divisions: D05 divisions: F71 keywords: Categories, Convexity, Alignment, Communication, Cultural transmission note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. abstract: The semantic categories labeled by words in natural languages are used for communication with others, and learned by observing the productions of others who learned them in the same way. Do these processes of communication and cultural transmission affect the structure of category systems and their alignment across speakers? We examine novel category systems that emerge from communication, cultural transmission, and both processes combined. Communication alone leads to category systems that vary widely in their communicative effectiveness, and are no more structured or aligned than those created by individuals. When combined with cultural transmission, communication speeds up convergence on a learnable number of structured, aligned categories that are consistently communicatively effective. However, cultural transmission without communication eventually has similar results. Communication appears to be neither necessary nor sufficient for creating semantic category systems that are robustly effective for communication. Furthermore, category systems that emerge from cultural transmission are more aligned across speakers than the systems created by individuals, suggesting that cultural transmission allows individuals to coordinate their semantic systems more effectively than they can through shared perceptual biases alone. date: 2019-12-01 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104051 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Journal Article verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1695172 doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104051 lyricists_name: Silvey, Catriona lyricists_id: CASIL74 actors_name: Silvey, Catriona actors_id: CASIL74 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Memory and Language volume: 109 article_number: 104051 citation: Silvey, C; Kirby, S; Smith, K; (2019) Communication increases category structure and alignment only when combined with cultural transmission. Journal of Memory and Language , 109 , Article 104051. 10.1016/j.jml.2019.104051 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104051>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10084279/1/jml_accepted_version.pdf