Compositional hierarchical structure is a prerequisite for productive languages; it allows language learners to express and understand an infinity of meanings from finite sources (i.e., a lexicon and a grammar). Understanding how such structure evolved is central to evolutionary linguistics. Previous work combining artificial language learning and iterated learning techniques has shown how basic compositional structure can evolve from the trade-off between learnability and expressivity pressures at play in language transmission. In the present study we show, across two experiments, how the same mechanisms involved in the evolution of basic compositionality can also lead to the evolution of compositional hierarchical structure. We thus provide experimental evidence showing that cultural transmission allows advantages of compositional hierarchical structure in language learning and use to permeate language as a system of behaviour.

中文翻译：

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文化传播中的成分等级结构演变：一项实验研究

组成层次结构是多产语言的先决条件；它允许语言学习者表达和理解来自有限来源（即词典和语法）的无限意义。了解这种结构如何进化是进化语言学的核心。先前结合人工语言学习和迭代学习技术的工作已经表明，基本的组成结构是如何从语言传输中的可学习性和表达压力之间的权衡中演变而来的。在本研究中，我们通过两个实验展示了参与基本组成演化的相同机制如何也导致组成层次结构的演化。