Abstract
Zipf’s law of abbreviation, relating more frequent signals to shorter signal lengths, applies to sounds in a variety of communication systems, both human and non-human. It also applies to writing systems: more frequent words tend to be encoded by less complex graphemes, even when grapheme complexity is decoupled from word length. This study documents an exception to this law of abbreviation. Observing European heraldic motifs, whose frequency of use was documented for the whole continent and over two large corpora (total N = 25115), one medieval, one early modern, we found that they do not obey a robust law of abbreviation. In our early modern corpus, motif complexity and motif frequency are positively, not negatively, correlated, a result driven by iconic motifs. In both our corpora, iconic motifs tend to be more frequent when more complex. They grew in popularity after the invention of printing. Our results suggest that lacking iconicity may be a precondition for a graphic code to exhibit Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation.
Highlights
Iconic motifs are more complex than non-iconic motifs
There was a weak correlation between frequency and descriptive complexity, and a stronger relationship between frequency and perimetric complexity rτ = .12, p < .001, 95% CI [0.058, 0.186]
Motif complexity and frequency showed a robust correlation in our early modern corpus, but it went in the direction opposite to our prediction: frequent motifs were more complex, not less
Summary
Zipf’s name is linked to two phenomena: the power law distribution of word frequencies, and the correlation that he observed between word lengths and word frequencies— often referred to as the « Law of Abbreviation », or « Brevity ». Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation (ZLA) has been documented in various communication systems, both human and non-human. Several empirical studies have verified Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation with both spoken and written communication systems. A ZLA obtains for all the spoken human languages for which it has been tested. A ZLA for phonological word length obtains in American English, Croatian, Greek, Indonesian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish [5]. Other studies, using number of phonemes as a proxy for word length, found a ZLA in Dutch, English, German and Swedish [6,7].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
