2026-09-23T06:36:15Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/90242022-01-13T07:54:12Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131022
Pattie Maes.
Best, Michael Lloyd
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
2005-09-27T20:01:04Z
2005-09-27T20:01:04Z
2000
2000
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9024
47799461
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-245).
A new microevolutionary theory of complex design within language is proposed. Experiments were carried out that support the theory that complex functional design - adaptive complexity - accumulates due to the evolutionary algorithm at the simplest levels within human natural language. A large software system was developed which identifies and tracks evolutionary dynamics within text discourse. With this system hundreds of examples of activity suggesting evolutionary significance were distilled from a text collection of many millions of words. Research contributions include: (1) An active replicator model of microevolutionary dynamics within natural language, (2) methods to distill active replicators offering evidence of evolutionary processes in action and at multiple linguistic levels (lexical, lexical co-occurrence, lexico-syntactic, and syntactic), (3) a demonstration that language evolution and organic evolution are both examples of a single over-arching evolutionary algorithm, (4) a set of tools to comparatively study language over time, and (5) methods to materially improve text retrieval.
by Michael Lloyd Best.
Ph.D.
245 p.
15540731 bytes
15540487 bytes
application/pdf
application/pdf
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Architecture.
Microevolutionary language theory
Thesis
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