The Emergence of Compositional Grammars in Artificial Codes

Abstract

This paper experimentally explores how compositional grammars in artificial codes emerge and are sustained. In a pure coordination game with no conflict of interest, the sender sends a message that is an arbitrary string from available symbols with no prior meaning to indicate an abstract geometrical figure to the receiver. We find strong evidence from the laboratory for the emergence of compositional grammars in the subjects' common codes that facilitate learning efficiency. Moreover, when there is a scarcity of symbols in the repertoire, some groups in our experiments developed languages with positional compositionality, meaning the same symbol has different interpretations depending on its position in a string, whereas other groups developed language structures that are not compositional but still efficient in communication.

Keywords: Communication Games, Economics of Language, Experimental Semiotics, Compositional Grammar.

JEL Classification: C72, C92, D03, D83.