Language Evolution and Information Theory

✍ Scribed by JOSHUA B PLOTKIN; MARTIN A NOWAK

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 186 KB
• Volume: 205
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.2000.2053

✦ Synopsis

This paper places models of language evolution within the framework of information theory. We study how signals become associated with meaning. If there is a probability of mistaking signals for each other, then evolution leads to an error limit: increasing the number of signals does not increase the "tness of a language beyond a certain limit. This error limit can be overcome by word formation: a linear increase of the word length leads to an exponential increase of the maximum "tness. We develop a general model of word formation and demonstrate the connection between the error limit and Shannon's noisy coding theorem.