Efficient compression in color naming and its evolution
Abstract
Semantic typology documents and explains how languages vary in their structuring of meaning. Information theory provides a formal model of communication that includes a precise definition of efficient compression. We show that color-naming systems across languages achieve near-optimal compression and that this principle explains much of the variation across languages. These findings suggest a possible process for color category evolution that synthesizes continuous and discrete aspects of previous accounts. The generality of this principle suggests that it may also apply to other semantic domains.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 18, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1800521115
Entities
People
- Charles Kemp
- Naftali Tishby
- Noga Zaslavsky
- Terry Regier
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem