Benz A., Ebert C., Jäger G., van Rooij R. (eds.) Language, Games, and Evolution. Trends in Current Research on Language and Game Theory

Springer, 2011. — 194 p.Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in formal pragmatics and especially in the establishment of game theory as a new research methodology for the study of language use. Game theory and decision theory (GDT) are natural candidates if we look for a theoretical foundation of linguistic pragmatics. Over the last decade, a firm research community has emerged with a strong interdisciplinary character, where economists, philosophers, and social scientists meet with linguists. Within this field of research, three major currents can be distinguished: one is closely related to the Gricean paradigm and aims at a precise foundation of pragmatic reasoning, the second originates in the economic literature and is concerned with the role of game theory in the context of language use, and the third aims at language evolution seen either from a biological or from a cultural perspective.
This volume grew out of two conferences, one organized at ESSLLI in 2007 on language, games, and evolution, and the other organized at the ZAS in Berlin on games and decisions in pragmatics in 2008. Both were funded by the ZAS, Berlin. Based on a selection of contributions to these conferences, we invited additional papers which together provide a state-of-the-art survey of current research on language evolution and game theoretic approaches to pragmatics.Language, Games, and Evolution: An Introduction
Non-evolutionary Approaches: Synchronic Phenomena
How to Set Up Normal Optimal Answer Models
Strategic Vagueness, and Appropriate Contexts
Now That You Mention It: Awareness Dynamics in Discourse and Decisions
The Role of Speaker Beliefs in Determining Accent Placement
Evolutionary Approaches: Diachronic Phenomena
Evolutionarily Stable Communication and Pragmatics
Simulating Grice: Emergent Pragmatics in Spatialized Game Theory
Signaling Games: Dynamics of Evolution and Learning
Pragmatics, Logic and Information Processing