Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language

The emergence of a complex language is one of the fundamental events of human evolution, and several remarkable features suggest the presence of fundamental principles of organization. These principles seem to be common to all languages. The best known is the so-called Zipf's law, which states...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X, Solé Vicente, Ricard
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2003
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/180245
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/180245
https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0335980100
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Zipf’s law
Computational linguistics
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
id ES_9dd93147e725cd2c587fdbd35c93b9d0
oai_identifier_str oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/180245
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Least effort and the origins of scaling in human languageFerrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923XSolé Vicente, RicardZipf’s lawComputational linguisticsLingüística computacionalÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge naturalThe emergence of a complex language is one of the fundamental events of human evolution, and several remarkable features suggest the presence of fundamental principles of organization. These principles seem to be common to all languages. The best known is the so-called Zipf's law, which states that the frequency of a word decays as a (universal) power law of its rank. The possible origins of this law have been controversial, and its meaningfulness is still an open question. In this article, the early hypothesis of Zipf of a principle of least effort for explaining the law is shown to be sound. Simultaneous minimization in the effort of both hearer and speaker is formalized with a simple optimization process operating on a binary matrix of signal–object associations. Zipf's law is found in the transition between referentially useless systems and indexical reference systems. Our finding strongly suggests that Zipf's law is a hallmark of symbolic reference and not a meaningless feature. The implications for the evolution of language are discussed. We explain how language evolution can take advantage of a communicative phase transition.Peer Reviewed20032003-02-0120202020-03-17journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501AMhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aainfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/180245https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0335980100reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/1802452026-05-27T15:37:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
title Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
spellingShingle Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Zipf’s law
Computational linguistics
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
title_short Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
title_full Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
title_fullStr Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
title_full_unstemmed Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
title_sort Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Solé Vicente, Ricard
author Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
author_facet Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Solé Vicente, Ricard
author_role author
author2 Solé Vicente, Ricard
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Zipf’s law
Computational linguistics
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
topic Zipf’s law
Computational linguistics
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
description The emergence of a complex language is one of the fundamental events of human evolution, and several remarkable features suggest the presence of fundamental principles of organization. These principles seem to be common to all languages. The best known is the so-called Zipf's law, which states that the frequency of a word decays as a (universal) power law of its rank. The possible origins of this law have been controversial, and its meaningfulness is still an open question. In this article, the early hypothesis of Zipf of a principle of least effort for explaining the law is shown to be sound. Simultaneous minimization in the effort of both hearer and speaker is formalized with a simple optimization process operating on a binary matrix of signal–object associations. Zipf's law is found in the transition between referentially useless systems and indexical reference systems. Our finding strongly suggests that Zipf's law is a hallmark of symbolic reference and not a meaningless feature. The implications for the evolution of language are discussed. We explain how language evolution can take advantage of a communicative phase transition.
publishDate 2003
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2003
2003-02-01
2020
2020-03-17
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
AM
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_ab4af688f83e57aa
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/180245
https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0335980100
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/180245
https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0335980100
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869414776997675008
score 15.301603

Similares en LA Referencia