title: Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure.
abstract: Language exhibits striking systematic structure. Words are composed of combinations of reusable sounds, and those words in turn are combined to form complex sentences. These properties make language unique among natural communication systems and enable our species to convey an open-ended set of messages. We provide a cultural evolutionary account of the origins of this structure. We show, using simulations of rational learners and laboratory experiments, that structure arises from a trade-off between pressures for compressibility (imposed during learning) and expressivity (imposed during communication). We further demonstrate that the relative strength of these two pressures can be varied in different social contexts, leading to novel predictions about the emergence of structured behaviour in the wild.
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Electronic address: simon@ling.ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kirby
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tamariz
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cornish
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kenny
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cultural transmission; Iterated learning; Language evolution