The Making of Meaning in Societies: Semiotic & Information-Theoretic Background to the Evolution of Communication

We examine the notions of meaning and information for animals or agents engaged in interaction games. Concepts from cognitive ethology, linguistics, semiotics, and evolution are surveyed. Innateness, individual learning, and social aspects (social learning and cultural transmission) of the evolution of communication are treated. Studies on animals and agents showing degrees of communication are analyzed with an eye to describing what aspects of communication actually are demonstrated, or also in the case of many simulation studies, are built-in to the system at the outset. In particular, predication and constituent structure (subcategorization) have so far never been shown to emerge in robotic or software systems.