Adaptive Communication: Languages with More Non-Native Speakers Tend to Have Fewer Word Forms

Christian Bentz; Annemarie Verkerk; Douwe Kiela; Felix Hill; Paula Buttery

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0128254

Adaptive Communication: Languages with More Non-Native Speakers Tend to Have Fewer Word Forms

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 17;10(6):e0128254. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128254. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Christian Bentz¹, Annemarie Verkerk², Douwe Kiela³, Felix Hill³, Paula Buttery⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
² Reading Evolutionary Biology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.
³ Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Explaining the diversity of languages across the world is one of the central aims of typological, historical, and evolutionary linguistics. We consider the effect of language contact-the number of non-native speakers a language has-on the way languages change and evolve. By analysing hundreds of languages within and across language families, regions, and text types, we show that languages with greater levels of contact typically employ fewer word forms to encode the same information content (a property we refer to as lexical diversity). Based on three types of statistical analyses, we demonstrate that this variance can in part be explained by the impact of non-native speakers on information encoding strategies. Finally, we argue that languages are information encoding systems shaped by the varying needs of their speakers. Language evolution and change should be modeled as the co-evolution of multiple intertwined adaptive systems: On one hand, the structure of human societies and human learning capabilities, and on the other, the structure of language.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Communication*
Humans
Language*
Least-Squares Analysis
Linear Models
Models, Theoretical

Grants and funding

CB is funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) doctoral grant and Cambridge Assessment (reference number: RG 69405), as well as a grant from the Cambridge Home and European Scholarship Scheme. AV is supported by ERC grant "The evolution of human languages" (reference number: 268744). DK is supported by EPSRC grant EP/I037512/1. FH is funded by a Benefactor's Scholarship of St. John's College, Cambridge. PB is supported by Cambridge English, University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.