Roberts Gareth, Lewandowski Jirka, Galantucci Bruno
Department of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, USA.
Cognition. 2015 Aug;141:52-66. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.04.001. Epub 2015 Apr 30.
Communication systems are exposed to two different pressures: a pressure for transmission efficiency, such that messages are simple to produce and perceive, and a pressure for referential efficiency, such that messages are easy to understand with their intended meaning. A solution to the first pressure is combinatoriality--the recombination of a few basic meaningless forms to express an infinite number of meanings. A solution to the second is iconicity--the use of forms that resemble what they refer to. These two solutions appear to be incompatible with each other, as iconic forms are ill-suited for use as meaningless combinatorial units. Furthermore, in the early stages of a communication system, when basic referential forms are in the process of being established, the pressure for referential efficiency is likely to be particularly strong, which may lead it to trump the pressure for transmission efficiency. This means that, where iconicity is available as a strategy, it is likely to impede the emergence of combinatoriality. Although this hypothesis seems consistent with some observations of natural language, it was unclear until recently how it could be soundly tested. This has changed thanks to the development of a line of research, known as Experimental Semiotics, in which participants construct novel communication systems in the laboratory using an unfamiliar medium. We conducted an Experimental Semiotic study in which we manipulated the opportunity for iconicity by varying the kind of referents to be communicated, while keeping the communication medium constant. We then measured the combinatoriality and transmission efficiency of the communication systems. We found that, where iconicity was available, it provided scaffolding for the construction of communication systems and was overwhelmingly adopted. Where it was not available, however, the resulting communication systems were more combinatorial and their forms more efficient to produce. This study enriches our understanding of the fundamental design principles of human communication and contributes tools to enrich it further.
一种是传输效率的压力，即信息易于产生和感知；另一种是指称效率的压力，即信息易于按照其预期含义被理解。解决第一种压力的方法是组合性——通过组合一些基本的无意义形式来表达无限数量的含义。解决第二种压力的方法是象似性——使用与其所指对象相似的形式。这两种解决方案似乎相互矛盾，因为象似形式不适合用作无意义的组合单元。此外，在通信系统的早期阶段，当基本指称形式正在确立时，指称效率的压力可能特别强大，这可能导致它压倒传输效率的压力。这意味着，在象似性可作为一种策略的情况下，它可能会阻碍组合性的出现。尽管这一假设似乎与对自然语言的一些观察结果一致，但直到最近还不清楚如何对其进行可靠的测试。由于一系列被称为实验符号学的研究的发展，这种情况发生了变化，在这些研究中，参与者在实验室中使用不熟悉的媒介构建新颖的通信系统。我们进行了一项实验符号学研究，在该研究中，我们通过改变要传达的指称对象的种类来操纵象似性的机会，同时保持通信媒介不变。然后，我们测量了通信系统的组合性和传输效率。我们发现，在有象似性可用的情况下，它为通信系统的构建提供了支撑，并被大量采用。然而，在没有象似性的情况下，产生的通信系统更具组合性，其形式产生起来更高效。这项研究丰富了我们对人类通信基本设计原则的理解，并为进一步丰富它贡献了工具。
