The evolution of color naming reflects pressure for efficiency: Evidence from the recent past
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Abstract
Abstract It has been proposed that semantic systems evolve under pressure for efficiency. This hypothesis has so far been supported largely indirectly, by synchronic cross-language comparison, rather than directly by diachronic data. Here, we directly test this hypothesis in the domain of color naming, by analyzing recent diachronic data from Nafaanra, a language of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, and comparing it with quantitative predictions derived from the mathematical theory of efficient data compression. We show that color naming in Nafaanra has changed over the past four decades while remaining near-optimally efficient, and that this outcome would be unlikely under a random drift process that maintains structured color categories without pressure for efficiency. To our knowledge, this finding provides the first direct evidence that color naming evolves under pressure for efficiency, supporting the hypothesis that efficiency shapes the evolution of the lexicon.
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Evidence for the efficient communication hypothesis has been found in the context of kinship and color systems.
“Evidence for the efficient communication hypothesis has been found in the context of kinship [18] and color [22–25] systems.”
From The role of pragmatic mechanisms in referential communication and categorization: An emergent communication model (2026) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Zaslavsky, N., Garvin, K., Kemp, C., Tishby, N., & Regier, T.
- Affiliations
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research (US)
- University of Delaware (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zaslavsky, Noga
- Venue
- Journal of Language Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-04-11
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 184-199
- ISSN
- 2058-4571 (ISSN-L)
- 2058-458X
- OpenAlex
- W4226030719
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 4.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Language Evolution (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- DTRA (HDTRA11710042)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
- Keywords
- color naming, color terms, semantic change, efficiency hypothesis, diachronic change, color categories, language change
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