Efficient compression in color naming and its evolution

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Noga ZaslavskyNaftali Tishby

Abstract

We derive a principled information-theoretic account of cross-language semantic variation. Specifically, we argue that languages efficiently compress ideas into words by optimizing the information bottleneck (IB) trade-off between the complexity and accuracy of the lexicon. We test this proposal in the domain of color naming and show that (i) color-naming systems across languages achieve near-optimal compression; (ii) small changes in a single trade-off parameter account to a large extent for observed cross-language variation; (iii) efficient IB color-naming systems exhibit soft rather than hard category boundaries and often leave large regions of color space inconsistently named, both of which phenomena are found empirically; and (iv) these IB systems evolve through a sequence of structural phase transitions, in a single process that captures key ideas associated with different accounts of color category evolution. These results suggest that a drive for information-theoretic efficiency may shape color-naming systems across languages. This principle is not specific to color, and so it may also apply to cross-language variation in other semantic domains.

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Citations

Nov 21, 2018·Topics in Cognitive Science·Noga ZaslavskyTerry Regier
Dec 31, 2019·Journal of Vision·Christoph WitzelAnna Franklin
Mar 12, 2020·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Wei Ji Ma, Michael Woodford
Jul 16, 2020·PloS One·Mikael KågebäckAsad Sayeed
Apr 28, 2019·Cognitive Neuropsychology·Noga ZaslavskyTerry Regier
Jan 23, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Michael HahnRichard Futrell
Nov 12, 2020·Cognitive Neuropsychology·Bradford Z Mahon, David Kemmerer
Oct 6, 2020·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Gary LupyanAndy Clark
Nov 18, 2020·Current Biology : CB·Isabelle A RosenthalBevil R Conway
Dec 1, 2020·Open Mind : Discoveries in Cognitive Science·Yang XuTerry Regier
Dec 9, 2020·Entropy·Borja Rodríguez GálvezMikael Skoglund
Nov 3, 2020·Cognitive Science·Delwin T LindseyRyan Lange
Dec 14, 2018·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Robert X D HawkinsRobert L Goldstone
Mar 17, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Rahma ChaabouniMarco Baroni
Mar 31, 2021·Nature Communications·María J PalazziJavier Borge-Holthoefer
Jun 4, 2019·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Katarzyna Siuda-KrzywickaChristoph Witzel
Jun 18, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Richard Futrell
Jul 25, 2021·Cognition·Robert Lieck, Martin Rohrmeier
Sep 16, 2021·Annual Review of Vision Science·Delwin T Lindsey, Angela M Brown
Sep 25, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Colin R TwomeyJoshua B Plotkin
Dec 8, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Francis MollicaCharles Kemp

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