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From Human Child to Grey Parrot: Exploring a Common Model of Word Meaning Extension Across Species.

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Titel: From Human Child to Grey Parrot: Exploring a Common Model of Word Meaning Extension Across Species.
Autoren: Fishkin M; Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto., Chang S; Department of Philosophy, York University., Xu Y; Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto.; Cognitive Science Department, University of Toronto.
Quelle: Cognitive science [Cogn Sci] 2025 Oct; Vol. 49 (10), pp. e70129.
Publikationsart: Comparative Study; Journal Article
Sprache: English
Info zur Zeitschrift: Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7708195 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1551-6709 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 03640213 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Cogn Sci Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s): Publication: 2009-: Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Norwood, N. J., Ablex Pub. Corp.
MeSH-Schlagworte: Parrots*/growth & development , Language Development* , Semantics* , Language*, Humans ; Animals ; Choice Behavior ; Knowledge ; Vocalization, Animal ; Datasets as Topic ; Models, Theoretical ; Child, Preschool
Abstract: Word meaning extension refers to the process by which a single word form develops multiple related meanings. Prior studies demonstrate that meaning extension at diverse timescales, from decades-long historical change and to month-long changes in child overextension, is accounted for by models grounded in conceptual relations across knowledge types. Whether this framework generalizes to other species remains an open question. We address this question with a probabilistic model of overextension based on various knowledge types to predict word choice of nonhuman animals. As a starting point, we compared cases of overextension from Apollo - a grey parrot who has acquired some English words - to the cases of overextension documented in child language acquisition. We apply an established model of child overextension to a novel parrot dataset of over 200 referent-utterance pairs (e.g., bead-"ball") collected from Apollo's YouTube channel and test whether the child model can predict parrot word choice. Our results show that Apollo's overextension can be predicted by the multimodal model of child overextension better than baseline models that rely on frequency or sound similarity. We also find independent evidence supporting the role of different knowledge types from Alex, a grey parrot, who features prominently in prior research on animal acquisition of human language. Our findings suggest that a common model might account for the cognitive ability of word overextension identifiable in a species that diverged from humans about 320 million years ago. We discuss potential limitations and future research directions that may further strengthen the current findings.
(© 2025 The Author(s). Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)
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Grant Information: University of Toronto
Contributed Indexing: Keywords: Animal semantics; Chaining; Comparative cognition; Evolution; Multimodal model; Overextension; Word meaning extension
Entry Date(s): Date Created: 20251028 Date Completed: 20251117 Latest Revision: 20251117
Update Code: 20251117
PubMed Central ID: PMC12560211
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.70129
PMID: 41147627
Datenbank: MEDLINE
Beschreibung
Abstract:Word meaning extension refers to the process by which a single word form develops multiple related meanings. Prior studies demonstrate that meaning extension at diverse timescales, from decades-long historical change and to month-long changes in child overextension, is accounted for by models grounded in conceptual relations across knowledge types. Whether this framework generalizes to other species remains an open question. We address this question with a probabilistic model of overextension based on various knowledge types to predict word choice of nonhuman animals. As a starting point, we compared cases of overextension from Apollo - a grey parrot who has acquired some English words - to the cases of overextension documented in child language acquisition. We apply an established model of child overextension to a novel parrot dataset of over 200 referent-utterance pairs (e.g., bead-"ball") collected from Apollo's YouTube channel and test whether the child model can predict parrot word choice. Our results show that Apollo's overextension can be predicted by the multimodal model of child overextension better than baseline models that rely on frequency or sound similarity. We also find independent evidence supporting the role of different knowledge types from Alex, a grey parrot, who features prominently in prior research on animal acquisition of human language. Our findings suggest that a common model might account for the cognitive ability of word overextension identifiable in a species that diverged from humans about 320 million years ago. We discuss potential limitations and future research directions that may further strengthen the current findings.<br /> (© 2025 The Author(s). Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).)
ISSN:1551-6709
DOI:10.1111/cogs.70129