Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication
Name
Piantadosi-2011-Mar-Word lengths are opt.pdf
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560.34 KB
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Author(s)
Piantadosi, Steven Thomas
Tily, Harry Joel
Gibson, Edward A.
Date Issued
March 2011
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Piantadosi, S. T., H. Tily, and E. Gibson. “Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (2011): 3526-3529.©2011 by the National Academy of Sciences.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We demonstrate a substantial improvement on one of the most celebrated empirical laws in the study of language, Zipf's 75-y-old theory that word length is primarily determined by frequency of use. In accord with rational theories of communication, we show across 10 languages that average information content is a much better predictor of word length than frequency. This indicates that human lexicons are efficiently structured for communication by taking into account interword statistical dependencies. Lexical systems result from an optimization of communicative pressures, coding meanings efficiently given the complex statistics of natural language use.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1012551108
