A computational framework to simulate the coevolution of language and social structure

In this paper, a multi-agent computational model is pro-posed to simulate the co-evolution of compositional proto-language and social structure from a holistic signal-ing system through iterative interactions within a hetero-geneous population. We implement an indirect meaning transference based on both linguistic and nonlinguistic in-formation in communications, together with a feedback without direct meaning transfer. The emergent social structure, triggered by two locally selective strategies, friendship and popularity, has small-world (Watts 1999) characteristics. The influence of these selective strategies on the emergent language and the emergent social struc-ture are discussed. 1