Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit,
Linguistics and English Language,
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences,
University of Edinburgh,
Room 1.13, Dugald Stewart Building,
3 Charles Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AD

Email: kenny@ling.ed.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)131 650 3956

Twitter: @kennysmithed

(Formerly Department of Psychology, Northumbria University)

Research Interests

I am interested in the evolution of communication, human language and the human capacity for language. My specific areas of interest include:

• Experimental models of cultural evolution (see paper in PNAS, paper in Cognition)
• Cultural evolution of vocabulary systems and compositional structure (See paper in Connection Science, paper in Advances in Complex Systems)
• Biological evolution of language learning biases/strategies (See paper in Journal of Theoretical Biology, paper in Phil Trans B)
• Cross-situational learning (See modelling paper in Cognitive Science, experimental paper in Cognitive Science)
• The utility of the protolanguage concept (See paper in Interaction Studies)

I am a member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland, and an external member of the Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture at Durham University, under the Innovation and Social Learning theme.

Publications

Thesis

Teaching

I am supervising Sean Roberts, Justin Sulik, Vanessa Ferdinand, Alan Nielsen, Catriona Silvey and Bill Thompson on their PhDs.  Jennifer Sturm did her PhD with me at Northumbria, on non-adjacent dependency learning and domain-specificity.

I teach Foundations of Evolution, a Masters-level introduction to evolutionary theory, primarily intended for students on the MSc Evolution of Language and Cognition.

Family

• My big brother is Malcolm Smith, of climbing and broccoli fame, still doing the business after 20 years. Watch him on Gutbuster at Dumbarton Rock.

• My little brother is Sandy Smith, artist, Fulbright scholar, and owner of (I hope) the world's biggest pink Zig-A-Zig Ah.