期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
卷 109, 期 44, 页码 17897-17902出版社
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215776109
关键词
language universals; learning biases; efficient information transmission; communicative pressures
资金
- National Science Foundation [BCS-0845059, IIS-1150028]
- Alfred P. Sloan fellowship
- National Institutes of Health [DC00167, HD037082]
- Div Of Information & Intelligent Systems
- Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr [1150028] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Languages of the world display many structural similarities. We test the hypothesis that some of these structural properties may arise from biases operating during language acquisition that shape languages over time. Specifically, we investigate whether language learners are biased toward linguistic systems that strike an efficient balance between robust information transfer, on the one hand, and effort or resource demands, on the other hand, thereby increasing the communicative utility of the acquired language. In two experiments, we expose learners to miniature artificial languages designed in such a way that they do not use their formal devices (case marking) efficiently to facilitate robust information transfer. We find that learners restructure such languages in ways that facilitate efficient information transfer compared with the input language. These systematic changes introduced by the learners follow typologically frequent patterns, supporting the hypothesis that some of the structural similarities found in natural languages are shaped by biases toward communicatively efficient linguistic systems.
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