The morphospace of language networks

Abstract What is the nature of language? How has it evolved in different species? Are there qualitative, well-defined classes of languages? Most studies of language evolution deal in a way or another with such theoretical contraption and explore the outcome of diverse forms of selection on the commu...

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Auteurs principaux:	Luís F. Seoane, Ricard Solé
Format:	article
Langue:	EN
Publié:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Sujets:	Medicine R Science Q
Accès en ligne:	https://doaj.org/article/c8c204598b6247fdaea4091c2f30dbde
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c8c204598b6247fdaea4091c2f30dbde2021-12-02T15:08:37ZThe morphospace of language networks10.1038/s41598-018-28820-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/c8c204598b6247fdaea4091c2f30dbde2018-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-28820-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract What is the nature of language? How has it evolved in different species? Are there qualitative, well-defined classes of languages? Most studies of language evolution deal in a way or another with such theoretical contraption and explore the outcome of diverse forms of selection on the communication matrix that somewhat optimizes communication. This framework naturally introduces networks mediating the communicating agents, but no systematic analysis of the underlying landscape of possible language graphs has been developed. Here we present a detailed analysis of network properties on a generic model of a communication code, which reveals a rather complex and heterogeneous morphospace of language graphs. Additionally, we use curated data of English words to locate and evaluate real languages within this morphospace. Our findings indicate a surprisingly simple structure in human language unless particles with the ability of naming any other concept are introduced in the vocabulary. These results refine and for the first time complement with empirical data a lasting theoretical tradition around the framework of least effort language.Luís F. SeoaneRicard SoléNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Luís F. Seoane Ricard Solé The morphospace of language networks
description	Abstract What is the nature of language? How has it evolved in different species? Are there qualitative, well-defined classes of languages? Most studies of language evolution deal in a way or another with such theoretical contraption and explore the outcome of diverse forms of selection on the communication matrix that somewhat optimizes communication. This framework naturally introduces networks mediating the communicating agents, but no systematic analysis of the underlying landscape of possible language graphs has been developed. Here we present a detailed analysis of network properties on a generic model of a communication code, which reveals a rather complex and heterogeneous morphospace of language graphs. Additionally, we use curated data of English words to locate and evaluate real languages within this morphospace. Our findings indicate a surprisingly simple structure in human language unless particles with the ability of naming any other concept are introduced in the vocabulary. These results refine and for the first time complement with empirical data a lasting theoretical tradition around the framework of least effort language.
format	article
author	Luís F. Seoane Ricard Solé
author_facet	Luís F. Seoane Ricard Solé
author_sort	Luís F. Seoane
title	The morphospace of language networks
title_short	The morphospace of language networks
title_full	The morphospace of language networks
title_fullStr	The morphospace of language networks
title_full_unstemmed	The morphospace of language networks
title_sort	morphospace of language networks
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/c8c204598b6247fdaea4091c2f30dbde
work_keys_str_mv	AT luisfseoane themorphospaceoflanguagenetworks AT ricardsole themorphospaceoflanguagenetworks AT luisfseoane morphospaceoflanguagenetworks AT ricardsole morphospaceoflanguagenetworks
_version_	1718388086512025600

The morphospace of language networks

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