人类语言是怎样形成的?一种观点认为,交际协作在语言发展中起了很重要的作用。可是怎么来证实这一理论呢?我们既没有时间机器,又缺少远古人的舌化石证据。不过,现在机器人却可以成为一个好帮手。研究者用带有一种进化软件的真实和虚拟两种机器人进行实验,研究结果证实了交际在进化中的重要作用;在近缘亲属或团队,这一作用则更为突出。 How does human language come into being? One view is that communicative collaboration plays a very important role in language development. But how can we confirm this theory? We have neither the time machine nor the ancient fossil evidence of the tongue. However, robots can now be a good helper. Researchers experimented with both real and virtual robots with an evolutionary software, and the results confirmed the important role of communication in evolution; in close relatives or teams, this role was even more pronounced.