Cognitive biases and language universals

Language universals have been longly attributed to an innate Universal Grammar. An alternative explanation states that linguistic universals emerged independently in every language in response to shared cognitive, though non language-specific, biases. A computational model has recently shown how this could be the case, focusing on the paradigmatic example of the universal properties of color naming patterns, and producing results in accurate agreement with the experimental data. Here we investigate thoroughly the role of a cognitive bias in the framework of this model. We study how, and to what extent, the structure of the bias can influence the corresponding linguistic universal patterns. We show also that the cultural history of a group of speakers introduces population-specific constraints that act against the uniforming pressure of the cognitive bias, and we clarify the interplay between these two forces. We believe that our simulations can help to shed light on the possible mechanisms at work in the evolution of language, as well as to provide a reference for further theoretical investigations.