Description

With this course we plan to give an introduction into the basics of Game
Theory, to review applications of GT to linguistic pragmatics, and to give
an overview over the evolutionary reinterpretation of GT and its relevance
to pragmatics, typology, and historical linguistics.

The focus of the course will be on the evolutionary re-interpretation of
GT which was originally developed by biologists. There the classical game
theoretic equilibrium concepts are replaced by the notion of evolutionary
stability.  In linguistic applications of Evolutionary Game Theory, the
underlying evolutionary dynamics is based on various forms of learning. 
We will discuss refinements of the classical dynamics like stochastic and
spatial evolution. Here computer simulations are an indispensable
heuristic tool.  

Last but not least, we will present various applications of these concepts
to pragmatics and typology.