Cognition· 2015Q1
Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure
- 575citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2015year
Short summary
Simulations and lab experiments show that linguistic structure, like reusable sounds and sentence formation, emerges from a trade-off between learning (compression) and communication (expressivity).
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Linguistic structure (reusable sounds, sentence formation) is a product of cultural evolution.
- Structure emerges from a trade-off between compressibility during learning and expressivity during communication.
- Simulations and laboratory experiments support this cultural evolutionary account.
- Varying the strength of compression vs. expressivity pressures predicts different emergent behaviors.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Language exhibits striking systematic structure. Words are composed of combinations of reusable sounds, and those words in turn are combined to form complex sentences. These properties make language unique among natural communication systems and enable our species to convey an open-ended set of messages. We provide a cultural evolutionary account of the origins of this structure. We show, using simulations of rational learners and laboratory experiments, that structure arises from a trade-off between pressures for compressibility (imposed during learning) and expressivity (imposed during communication). We further demonstrate that the relative strength of these two pressures can be varied in different social contexts, leading to novel predictions about the emergence of structured behaviour in the wild.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Cognition, 2015 · DOI ↗
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Field: Cultural Studies
Cultural StudiesSocial Sciences