How Do We Use Language? Shared Patterns in the Frequency of Word Use Across 17 World Languages

Calude, Andreea S.; Pagel, Mark

doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199608966.003.0017

Cited by 17 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…But this view is incompatible with the fact that even cross-linguistically, meaning is systematically related to frequency. Calude and Pagel (2011) examined Swadesh lists from 17 languages representing six language families and compared frequencies of words on the list. Swadesh lists provide translations of simple, frequent words like “mother” across many languages; they are often used to do historical reconstruction.…”

Section: Empirical Phenomena In Word Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 2 shows frequency-rank plots of the Swadesh lists compiled in Calude and Pagel (2011), 8 plotted, like all other plots in the article, according to the methods. However, unlike other plots in this article, the frequency rank here is fixed across all languages, estimated independently on 25 % of the data from each language and then collapsed across languages.…”

Section: Empirical Phenomena In Word Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cross-linguistic word frequency distributions using words from a Swadesh list (data provided by Calude & Pagel, 2011). Here, the x -location of each point (word) is fixed across languages according to the aggregate frequency rank of the word’s meaning on an independent set of data.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zipf’s word frequency law in natural language: A critical review and future directions

2014

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The frequency distribution of words has been a key object of study in statistical linguistics for the past 70 years. This distribution approximately follows a simple mathematical form known as Zipf ’ s law. This article first shows that human language has a highly complex, reliable structure in the frequency distribution over and above this classic law, although prior data visualization methods have obscured this fact. A number of empirical phenomena related to word frequencies are then reviewed. These facts are chosen to be informative about the mechanisms giving rise to Zipf’s law and are then used to evaluate many of the theoretical explanations of Zipf’s law in language. No prior account straightforwardly explains all the basic facts or is supported with independent evaluation of its underlying assumptions. To make progress at understanding why language obeys Zipf’s law, studies must seek evidence beyond the law itself, testing assumptions and evaluating novel predictions with new, independent data.

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Section: Empirical Phenomena In Word Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Phenomena In Word Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zipf’s word frequency law in natural language: A critical review and future directions

2014

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“…Pagel (2008) argues that language evolved to assist diff erentiation from others, a claim which is reinforced by the high frequency of socially relevant words like who, what, when, etc. used across multiple languages (Calude & Pagel, 2011). Social regulation, i.e.…”

Section: Perspective Th Ree -Creating Interest In the Speakermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social regulation, i.e. manipulating how we (and others) are perceived, requires a diverse and nuanced language (Calude & Pagel, 2011) and qualitative analyses have demonstrated how language can be used to construct a unique identity (e.g. Kitzinger & Mandelbaum, 2013).…”

Section: Perspective Th Ree -Creating Interest In the Speakermentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do Word Blends with Near-Synonymous Composites Exist and Persist? The Case of Guesstimate, Chillax, Ginormous and Confuzzled

Evans

Steptoe‐Warren

2015

Psychology of Language and Communication

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Despite their increasing use, litt le is known about the purpose of word blends, e.g. chillax, which have near-synonymous composite words (relax and chill). Potential explanations for their existence and persistence include: use in diff erent sentence constructions, to provide unique meaning, and to create interest/identity. Th e current study used a vignett e methodology with two-hundred and forty-one students to explore the relevance of such hypotheses for 'guesstimate', 'chillax', 'ginormous', and 'confuzzled'. Our inconsistent results suggest that the semantics of the word blends may diff er from their composites in very subtle ways. However further work is needed to acknowledge and determine the impact of context upon the use and consequences of these word blends.

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Spoken language achieves robustness and evolvability by exploiting degeneracy and neutrality

Winter

2014

BioEssays

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As with biological systems, spoken languages are strikingly robust against perturbations. This paper shows that languages achieve robustness in a way that is highly similar to many biological systems. For example, speech sounds are encoded via multiple acoustically diverse, temporally distributed and functionally redundant cues, characteristics that bear similarities to what biologists call "degeneracy". Speech is furthermore adequately characterized by neutrality, with many different tongue configurations leading to similar acoustic outputs, and different acoustic variants understood as the same by recipients. This highlights the presence of a large neutral network of acoustic neighbors for every speech sound. Such neutrality ensures that a steady backdrop of variation can be maintained without impeding communication, assuring that there is "fodder" for subsequent evolution. Thus, studying linguistic robustness is not only important for understanding how linguistic systems maintain their functioning upon the background of noise, but also for understanding the preconditions for language evolution.

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How Do We Use Language? Shared Patterns in the Frequency of Word Use Across 17 World Languages

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Zipf’s word frequency law in natural language: A critical review and future directions

Zipf’s word frequency law in natural language: A critical review and future directions

Why Do Word Blends with Near-Synonymous Composites Exist and Persist? The Case of Guesstimate, Chillax, Ginormous and Confuzzled

Spoken language achieves robustness and evolvability by exploiting degeneracy and neutrality

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