Self-organization and Emergence in Language a Case Study for Color

A computational language game model is presented that shows how a population of language users can evolve from a brightness-based to a brightness+hue-based color term system. The shift is triggered by a change in the communication challenges posed by the environment, comparable to what happened in English during the Middle English period in response to the rise of dyeing and textile manufacturing c. 1150–1500. In a previous model that is able to explain such a shift, these two color categorization strategies were explicitly represented. This is not needed in our model. Instead, whether a population evolves a brightnessor a hue-based system is an emergent phenomenon that depends only on environmental factors. In this way, the model provides an explanation of how such a shift may come about without introducing additional mechanisms that would require further explanation.