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Emergent Linguistic Phenomena in Multi-Agent Communication Games

arXiv 1901.08706 ↗First posted 25 Jan 2019cs.CL cs.AI cs.SIcited by 36

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Abstract (arXiv)

In this work, we propose a computational framework in which agents equipped with communication capabilities simultaneously play a series of referential games, where agents are trained using deep reinforcement learning. We demonstrate that the framework mirrors linguistic phenomena observed in natural language: i) the outcome of contact between communities is a function of inter- and intra-group connectivity; ii) linguistic contact either converges to the majority protocol, or in balanced cases leads to novel creole languages of lower complexity; and iii) a linguistic continuum emerges where neighboring languages are more mutually intelligible than farther removed languages. We conclude that intricate properties of language evolution need not depend on complex evolved linguistic capabilities, but can emerge from simple social exchanges between perceptually-enabled agents playing communication games.

Key facts. Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 25 Jan 2019.

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 8; 2022: 7; 2023: 5; 2024: 6; 2025: 6; 2026: 4.

36 papers.

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  1. 2025SPIRAL: Self-Play on Zero-Sum Games Incentivizes Reasoning via Multi-Agent Multi-Turn Reinforcement Learningcited by 89
  2. 2025SPICE: Self-Play In Corpus Environments Improves Reasoningcited by 78
  3. 2021Learning to Ground Multi-Agent Communication with Autoencoderscited by 37
  4. 2024LLM Harmony: Multi-Agent Communication for Problem Solvingcited by 34
  5. 2022Emergent Communication: Generalization and Overfitting in Lewis Gamescited by 28
  6. 2021From partners to populations: A hierarchical Bayesian account of coordination and conventioncited by 27
  7. 2025Large Language Models Miss the Multi-Agent Markcited by 25
  8. 2022Emergent Communication for Understanding Human Language Evolution: What's Missing?cited by 23
  9. 2021Quasi-Equivalence Discovery for Zero-Shot Emergent Communicationcited by 19
  10. 2024A Review of the Applications of Deep Learning-Based Emergent Communicationcited by 17
  11. 2021Emergent Graphical Conventions in a Visual Communication Gamecited by 16
  12. 2022Emergent Communication through Metropolis-Hastings Naming Game with Deep Generative Modelscited by 16
24 more
  1. 2021The Emergence of the Shape Bias Results from Communicative Efficiencycited by 13
  2. 2023Towards More Human-like AI Communication: A Review of Emergent Communication Researchcited by 12
  3. 2021Expressivity of Emergent Language is a Trade-off between Contextual Complexity and Unpredictabilitycited by 11
  4. 2021Dynamic population-based meta-learning for multi-agent communication with natural languagecited by 10
  5. 2023Referential communication in heterogeneous communities of pre-trained visual deep networkscited by 10
  6. 2026The Five Ws of Multi-Agent Communication: Who Talks to Whom, When, What, and Why -- A Survey from MARL to Emergent Language and LLMscited by 10
  7. 2021Calibrate your listeners! Robust communication-based training for pragmatic speakerscited by 9
  8. 2023Learning Multi-Agent Communication with Contrastive Learningcited by 9
  9. 2025Spontaneous Giving and Calculated Greed in Language Modelscited by 9
  10. 2024NeLLCom-X: A Comprehensive Neural-Agent Framework to Simulate Language Learning and Group Communicationcited by 8
  11. 2022Trust-based Consensus in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Systemscited by 6
  12. 2024Language Evolution with Deep Learningcited by 5
  13. 2022Learning to Ground Decentralized Multi-Agent Communication with Contrastive Learningcited by 4
  14. 2022Emergence of Machine Language: Towards Symbolic Intelligence with Neural Networkscited by 3
  15. 2023Do learned speech symbols follow Zipf's law?cited by 3
  16. 2022Recommendations for Systematic Research on Emergent Languagecited by 2
  17. 2024Bidirectional Emergent Language in Situated Environmentscited by 1
  18. 2025From Grunts to Lexicons: Emergent Language from Cooperative Foragingcited by 1
  19. 2023Emergent Communication for Rules Reasoningcited by 0
  20. 2024Emergent Communication in Continuous Worlds: Self-Organisation of Conceptually Grounded Vocabularies at Scalecited by 0
  21. 2025VQEL: Enabling Self-Play in Emergent Language Games via Agent-Internal Vector Quantizationcited by 0
  22. 2026Modeling Human-Like Color Naming Behavior in Contextcited by 0
  23. 2026Drawing with Strangers: Population Scaling Drives Zero-Shot Mutual Intelligibility in Emergent Sketchingcited by 0
  24. 2026From RLVR to RLSVR: Task Transformation Induces Self-Verifiable Rewards for Open-Ended LLM Self-Improvementcited by 0