So EvoLang is over. But if you missed any of it, the papers are still available online. In celebration of the new digital format, I’ve chosen a number of papers for some post-conference awards (nothing official, just for fun!).
Most viewed papers
The proceedings website received 6,000 page hits, most of them during the conference itself. Here are the top 3 most viewed pages:
The Low-complexity-belt: Evidence For Large-scale Language Contact In Human Prehistory?
Christian Bentz
Semantic Approximation And Its Effect On The Development Of Lexical Conventions
Bill Noble and Raquel Fernández
Evolution Of What?
Christina Behme
Most news coverage
Two papers were covered by Science magazine:
Dendrophobia In Bonobo Comprehension Of Spoken English
Robert Truswell (read the article here)
The Fidelity Of Iterated Vocal Imitation
Pierce Edmiston , Marcus Perlman and Gary Lupyan (read the article here)
Most cited paper
One of the advantages of the papers being accessible online, and before the conference, is that other people may cite them. Indeed, on the day EvoLang ended, I received a short piece to review which cited this paper, which therefore gets the prize:
Anatomical Biasing Of Click Learning And Production: An MRI And 3D Palate Imaging Study
Dan Dediu and Scott Moisik
Best paper by an academic couple
By my count, there were 4 papers submitted by academic couples. My favorite was a great collaboration on a novel topic: the paper by Monika Pleyer and Michael Pleyer on taking the first steps towards integrating politeness theory and evolution (it was also shortlisted for best talk).
The Evolution Of Im/politeness
Monika Pleyer and Michael Pleyer
Best supplementary materials
8 accepted papers included supplementary materials, which are available on the website. These range from hilarious image stimuli (my favorite: a witch painting a pizza), to a 7-page model explanation, through to netlogo code and raw data and analysis scripts. But I’m afraid I’m going to choose my own paper’s supplementary materials for including videos of people playing Minecraft. For science.
Deictic Tools Can Limit The Emergence Of Referential Symbol Systems
Elizabeth Irvine and Sean Roberts