Gyevnar Balint, Dagan Gautier, Haley Coleman, Guo Shangmin, Mollica Frank
School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AB, UK.
Entropy (Basel). 2022 Oct 26;24(11):1542. doi: 10.3390/e24111542.
Language evolution is driven by pressures for simplicity and informativity; however, the timescale on which these pressures operate is debated. Over several generations, learners' biases for simple and informative systems can guide language evolution. Over repeated instances of dyadic communication, the principle of least effort dictates that speakers should bias systems towards simplicity and listeners towards informativity, similarly guiding language evolution. At the same time, it has been argued that learners only provide a bias for simplicity and, thus, language users must provide a bias for informativity. To what extent do languages evolve during acquisition versus use? We address this question by formally defining and investigating the communicative efficiency of acquisition trajectories. We illustrate our approach using colour-naming systems, replicating the communicative efficiency model of Zaslavsky, Kemp, Regier & Tishby (2018, ) and the acquisition model of Beekhuizen & Stevenson (2018, ). We find that to the extent that language is iconic, learning alone is sufficient to shape language evolution. Regarding colour-naming systems specifically, we find that incorporating learning biases into communicative efficiency accounts might explain how speakers and listeners trade off communicative effort.
语言演变是由对简洁性和信息性的压力驱动的；然而，这些压力起作用的时间尺度存在争议。在几代人的时间里，学习者对简单且信息丰富的系统的偏好可以引导语言演变。在反复的二元交流实例中，省力原则表明，说话者应使系统偏向简洁性，而听众应偏向信息性，同样也能引导语言演变。与此同时，有人认为学习者只对简洁性有偏好，因此，语言使用者必须对信息性有偏好。在语言习得和使用过程中，语言会在多大程度上发生演变呢？我们通过正式定义和研究习得轨迹的交际效率来解决这个问题。我们使用颜色命名系统来说明我们的方法，复制了扎斯拉夫斯基、肯普、雷吉尔和蒂什比（Zaslavsky, Kemp, Regier & Tishby，2018年）的交际效率模型以及比克豪伊曾和史蒂文森（Beekhuizen & Stevenson，2018年）的习得模型。我们发现，就语言具有象似性而言，仅学习就足以塑造语言演变。具体就颜色命名系统而言，我们发现将学习偏好纳入交际效率考量可能有助于解释说话者和听众如何权衡交际努力。
