Simon Pauw

University of Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Simon Pauw’s research lies at the intersection of cognitive science, computational linguistics, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on how spatial language and quantification emerge and evolve. His major contributions center on the puzzle of perceptual deviation—how agents with different sensory experiences can communicate using vague, flexible semantics. In his most cited work, “Dealing with Perceptual Deviation: Vague Semantics for Spatial Language and Quantification” (22 citations), Pauw provides a computational framework for understanding how language can remain robust despite individual differences in perception. His earlier paper, “Open-Ended Semantics Co-Evolving with Spatial Language” (13 citations), explores how creativity and flexibility in spatial language arise through co-evolutionary processes, proposing that semantics themselves must be open-ended to capture the richness of human communication. Pauw also investigates the cultural evolution of quantifiers, showing how terms like “a few” emerge and stabilize through repeated use, as detailed in “The Emergence of Quantifiers” (8 citations). His work is notable for bridging formal semantics with embodied cognition, offering a fresh perspective on how language adapts to the messy, subjective nature of human experience. For students and researchers, Pauw’s research illuminates the dynamic, bottom-up processes that give rise to linguistic structure.