Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure

Simon Kirby,Monica Tamariz,Hannah Cornish,Kenny Smith

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.03.016

Simon Kirby, Monica Tamariz + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.03.016

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Journal: Cognition	Publication Date: May 14, 2015
Citations: 324	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling

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.

Highlights

Language is unique among the communication systems of the natural world in exhibiting rich combinatorial and compositional structure
Our species can productively construct novel signals on the fly by recombining reusable meaningless elements to form meaning-bearing units which are further recursively combined. The meanings of these complex utterances are derivable in a predictable way from the composition of their subparts
The precise way in which this combinatorial and compositional structure is realised differs from language to language and is part of the knowledge that each language learner must acquire. The existence of this kind of systematicity is both universal to all languages – it is one of the fundamental design features of human language

Summary

Introduction

Language is unique among the communication systems of the natural world in exhibiting rich combinatorial and compositional structure. Our species can productively construct novel signals on the fly by recombining reusable meaningless elements (speech sounds) to form meaning-bearing units (morphemes and words) which are further recursively combined.

Results

Conclusion