Towards an artificial model of ‘languaging’: reviewing the distributed language hypothesis

In this review of Stephen Cowley’s special issue of Pragmatics & Cognition [Cowley, S.J., 2009. Distributed language and dynamics. Pragmatics & Cognition 17 (3), 495–508] we present an overview of the extensive overlap between the distributed language approach and the development of artificial dialogue systems. After presenting a brief summary of each of the articles in the Distributed Language special issue of Pragmatics & Cognition we will discuss how this new approach could contribute to existing artificial models of language and the production of effective human–computer conversational interactions. In doing so we will briefly highlight the mutual advantages of an interdisciplinary program of research, one that could unify the varied strands of distributed language and contribute to current Artificial Intelligence research programs.