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Verbs, nouns, and simulated language games

The paper describes some simple computer simulations that implement Wittgenstein’s notion of a language game, where the meaning of a linguistic signal for an individual is the role played by the linguistic signal in the individual’s interactions with the nonlinguistic and linguistic environment. In the simulations an artificial organism interacts at the sensory-motor level with an environment and its behavior is influenced by the linguistic signals the individual receives from the environment (conspecifics). Using this approach we try to capture the distinction between (proto)verbs and (proto)nouns, where (proto)verbs are linguistic signals that tend to co-vary with the action with which the organism responds to the sensory input whereas (proto)nouns are linguistic signals that tend to co-vary with the particular sensory input to which the organism responds with its actions. Some extensions of the approach to the analysis of other parts of speech ((proto)adjectives, (proto)sentences, etc.) are also described. The paper ends up with some open questions and suggestions on how to deal with them. 1 1. Simulated language games The meaning of a linguistic signal is the manner in which the linguistic signal is used in the everyday interactions of speakers/hearers with the world and the role the linguistic signal plays in their overall behavior. This Wittgensteinian definition of meaning, while probably correct, poses a serious problem for the study of language in that, although linguistic signals as sounds or visual (written) forms are easily identified, observed, and described, the way in which linguistic signals are used by actual speakers/hearers in real life situations is very difficult to observe and describe with any precision, reliability, and completeness. Therefore, linguists, psycholinguists, and philosophers tend to replace meanings with such poor “proxies” as verbal definitions, translations (when studying linguistic signals in other languages), or the limited and very artificial uses of linguistic signals in