mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Emergent Language Generalization and Acquisition Speed are not tied to Compositionality

arXiv 2004.03420 ↗First posted 7 Apr 2020cs.CL cs.LGcited by 17

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Abstract (arXiv)

Studies of discrete languages emerging when neural agents communicate to solve a joint task often look for evidence of compositional structure. This stems for the expectation that such a structure would allow languages to be acquired faster by the agents and enable them to generalize better. We argue that these beneficial properties are only loosely connected to compositionality. In two experiments, we demonstrate that, depending on the task, non-compositional languages might show equal, or better, generalization performance and acquisition speed than compositional ones. Further research in the area should be clearer about what benefits are expected from compositionality, and how the latter would lead to them.

Key facts. Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2020.

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 1; 2022: 4; 2023: 4; 2024: 5; 2025: 1; 2026: 2.

17 papers.

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  1. 2022Emergent Communication: Generalization and Overfitting in Lewis Gamescited by 28
  2. 2022Linking Emergent and Natural Languages via Corpus Transfercited by 19
  3. 2024Iterated Learning Improves Compositionality in Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 17
  4. 2024A Review of the Applications of Deep Learning-Based Emergent Communicationcited by 17
  5. 2024On The Specialization of Neural Modulescited by 14
  6. 2023Towards More Human-like AI Communication: A Review of Emergent Communication Researchcited by 12
  7. 2024Emergent Language: A Survey and Taxonomycited by 12
  8. 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
  9. 2022Defending Compositionality in Emergent Languagescited by 8
  10. 2021Neural networks can understand compositional functions that humans do not, in the context of emergent communicationcited by 4
  11. 2022Recommendations for Systematic Research on Emergent Languagecited by 2
  12. 2023A framework for the emergence and analysis of language in social learning agentscited by 2
5 more
  1. 2023Context-dependent communication under environmental constraintscited by 2
  2. 2024ELCC: the Emergent Language Corpus Collectioncited by 2
  3. 2023On the Correspondence between Compositionality and Imitation in Emergent Neural Communicationcited by 1
  4. 2026Emergent Compositional Communication for Latent World Propertiescited by 1
  5. 2025Morpheme Induction for Emergent Languagecited by 0