EXPRESSING SECOND ORDER SEMANTICS AND THE EMERGENCE OF RECURSION
Joris Bleys · The Evolution of Language · 2008
Although most previous model-based research has not moved beyond first-order semantics, human languages are clearly capable of expressing second-order semantics: the meanings expressed in a sentence do not only consist of conjunctions of first-order predicates but also predicates that take other predicates as an argument. In this paper we report on multi-agent language game experiments in which agents handle second-order semantics. We focus our discussion on how this type of research is able to provide fundamental insights in how properties of humanlanguage-like properties could once have emerged. For recursion, this might have happened as a side-effect of agents trying to reuse previously learned language structure as much as possible. 1.