Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure
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Language exhibits striking systematic structure. Words are composed of combinations of reusable sounds, and those words in turn are combined to form complex sentences. These properties make language unique among natural communication systems and enable our species to convey an open-ended set of messages. We provide a cultural evolutionary account of the origins of this structure. We show, using simulations of rational learners and laboratory experiments, that structure arises from a trade-off between pressures for compressibility (imposed during learning) and expressivity (imposed during communication). We further demonstrate that the relative strength of these two pressures can be varied in different social contexts, leading to novel predictions about the emergence of structured behaviour in the wild.
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Human language retains its expressivity by becoming learnable via the evolution of compressed structure.
“Human language, for example, retains its expressivity by becoming learnable via the evolution of compressed structure 110 .”
From Machine culture (2023) · cites this paper as [110]
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- Authors
- Kirby, S., Tamariz, M., Cornish, H., & Smith, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- University of Stirling (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kirby, Simon
- Venue
- Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-08
- Volume
- 141
- Pages
- 87-102
- ISSN
- 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2118232585
- Cited by
- 557
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 108 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 556.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cognition (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- ESRC (RES-062-23-1537)
- AHRC (AH/F017677/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- cultural evolution of language, language structure, origin of language, compressibility, expressivity, language learning, communication, language emergence, social environment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Communication, Cultural Evolution, Female, Humans, Language, Learning, Male, Models, Psychological, Psycholinguistics, Young Adult
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