Meaningful Games: Exploring Language with Game Theory by Robin Clark (review)

In this book, Clark introduces game theory and its application to linguistic meaning. The central idea presented is that meaning arises from strategic choices made by rational players and that it can be modeled with game theory. Game theory itself is about rational decision making in a situation where the outcome depends on a choice made by one player (or agent). Its application to linguistics aids in the development of a formal mathematical approach to modeling linguistic behaviour.

Part 1 – The social side of meaning

The first part of the book is devoted to comparing game theory to the widely-accepted computational approach to linguistic meaning. In Chapter 1, “Platonic Heaven”, Clark presents this approach, in which the mind is defined as a computational device containing all the rules necessary to manipulate concepts. In this standard view, there is a mapping between natural language and the language of thought, i.e., mentalese. In Chapter 2, “My Fall from Platonic Heaven”, he states that concepts are rather constrained by their relation with the world since it is the social network “that gives my words and mental states content” (p. 31). Clark then spends Chapter 3, “Meaning and the Social Contract”, arguing that meaning originates outside the mind because if one wants to be understood, one must first choose the best socially-accepted way of expressing oneself. For Clark, language is not only connected with human reasoning, but most importantly with the real world. The fact that game theory makes it possible to explicitly represent the choices made by a player and to model such a strategic social interaction makes it, according to the author, a perfect tool to use for the study of linguistic meaning.

Part 2 – Games and truth

In this second part of the book, Clark introduces the mechanics of game theory and works through many examples of its application to the study of linguistic meaning. In Chapter 4, “A Primer on Games”, it is argued that communication is strategic from both the hearer’s and the speaker’s perspective as they both want to maximize their payoffs. A game between two players is defined as a series of choices, each having its own utility (a utility is like an arithmetic preference for different options), and for each of these choices players will typically choose the most favourable outcome for themselves. In other words, a player will make the highest-utility move at each point where s/he has a choice to make. It is worth noting that, though game theory does provide a formal framework, that formalism does not help to justify the different values for the utilities of a given decisional node.

Clark presents many examples of different kinds of games, but he notes that only games of partial information can provide good models of linguistic communication. In a partial information game, a player makes a choice without completely resolving a possible ambiguity (e.g., the two possible meanings of a word). Additionally, since communication also involves social conventions and cooperation, Clark suggests that coordination games are an excellent starting point to explore linguistic communication. Coordination games are a class of games where the choices made by a player will affect the outcome of the other player (e.g., Hobo Dinner Game on p. 90). In the well-known Prisoner’s Dilemma, two suspects are held by the police and they cannot communicate with each other. The police offer them a deal with three possible outcomes: if they both remain silent, they both will serve one year in prison, if they betray each other, they both will serve two years in prison, and if one stays silent and the other one betrays him, the former will serve three years in prison and the latter will be free. This is a great example of a coordination game because a decision made by one player affects the outcome of the other player.

Chapter 5, “A Game Logic for Natural...