Communicative Efficiency: Language Structure and Use

311 Pages·2022·2.154 MB·

by  Natalia Levshina

Communicative Efficiency
All living beings try to save effort, and humans are no exception. This
groundbreakingbookshowshowwesavetimeandenergyduringcommuni-
cation by unconsciously making efficient choices in grammar, lexicon and
phonology.Itpresentsanewtheoryof‘communicativeefficiency’,theidea
that language is designed to be as efficient as possible, as a system of
communication.Thenewframeworkaccountsforthediversemanifestations
ofcommunicativeefficiencyacrossatypologicallybroadrangeoflanguages,
using various corpus-based and statistical approaches to explain speakers’
bias towards efficiency. The author’s unique interdisciplinary expertise
allowshertoproviderichevidencefromabroadrangeoflanguagesciences.
Sheintegratesdiverseinsightsfromoverahundredyearsofresearchintothis
comprehensible new theory, which she presents step-by-step in clear and
accessiblelanguage.Itisessentialreadingforlanguagescientists,cognitive
scientistsandanyoneinterestedinlanguageuseandcommunication.
natalia levshina is a postdoctoral researcher at the Neurobiology of
Language Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. She is
theauthorofthebest-sellingbookHowtoDoLinguisticswithR(2015).
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Communicative Ef ciency
Language Structure and Use
Natalia Levshina
MaxPlanckInstituteforPsycholinguistics,TheNetherlands
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108840798
DOI:10.1017/9781108887809
©NataliaLevshina2023
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Firstpublished2023
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To my teachers
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Contents
List of Figures page x
List of Tables xii
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvi
List of Abbreviations xvii
Part I Different Types of Efficiency inLanguage 1
1 Communicative Efficiency: Main Concepts 3
1.1 WhatIsCommunicativeEfficiency? 3
1.2 BenefitsandCostsinCommunication 8
1.3 HowtoBeEfficient? 18
1.4 ThreePrinciplesofEfficientCommunication 23
1.5 ‘Good-Enough’Efficiency 29
1.6 Conclusions 34
2 Efficiency and FormalLength 36
2.1 EfficientLengthAsymmetries 36
2.2 AccessibilityofReferentsandLengthofReferentialExpressions
andMarkers 37
2.3 GrammaticalCodingAsymmetriesandSplits 46
2.4 TheUseandOmissionofClauseConnectors 50
2.5 Same-SubjectandDifferent-SubjectConstructions 55
2.6 Zipf’sLawofAbbreviation 57
2.7 PhoneticReductionandEnhancement 61
2.8 Conclusions 65
3 Efficiency and theOrderof Meaningful Elements 66
3.1 EfficientOrder 66
3.2 FactorsDeterminingEfficiencyofOrder 66
3.3 Cross-LinguisticManifestationsofEfficientOrder 76
3.4 StarWarsandViolationsofConventionalWordOrder 90
3.5 Conclusions 93
vii
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viii Contents
4 OtherWays of Saving Effort 95
4.1 EfficiencyBeyondCodingLengthandWordOrder 95
4.2 PreferenceforAccessibleUnitsandInterpretations 95
4.3 AnalyticSupport 97
4.4 HorrorAequi,orAvoidanceofIdentity 100
4.5 EntryPlaceforNewReferents 102
4.6 Conclusions 103
PartII Efficiency and Language Evolution 105
5 Emergence of Efficient Language Patterns 107
5.1 ChangesLeadingtoEfficientPatterns 107
5.2 Efficiency-DrivenFormalReduction 109
5.3 Efficiency-DrivenFormalEnhancement 111
5.4 CausalModelsofFormalReductionandEnhancement 118
5.5 Suppletion,CompositionalityandtheCompetitionofMeaningsforForms 128
5.6 WordOrderOptimization 130
5.7 ANoteonTeleology 132
5.8 Conclusions 134
6 From Trade-Offs toCausal Networks 136
6.1 Trade-OffsinLinguistics 136
6.2 ProblemswithTrade-Offs 139
6.3 FromtheTrade-OffbetweenCaseMarkingandWordOrdertoaMultivariate
CausalNetwork 144
6.4 Conclusions 151
PartIII Case Studies 153
7 Efficient Form–MeaningMapping inCausative Constructions 155
7.1 TheCausativeContinuum 155
7.2 MoreThanJustDirectandIndirectCausation 161
7.3 CompetitionbetweenFormalParameters 175
7.4 DiachronicEvidence 182
7.5 AnArtificialLanguageLearningExperiment 187
7.6 Conclusions 191
8 DifferentialCase Markingand Efficiency 193
8.1 DifferentialCaseMarking 193
8.2 Cross-LinguisticGeneralizationsRelatedtoDifferentialCaseMarking 195
8.3 ExplanationsofDifferentialCaseMarking 203
8.4 ReverseEngineering:Cross-LinguisticGeneralizationsandCorpusData 208
8.5 DevelopmentofDifferentialCaseMarking 223
8.6 ExperimentalEvidencefromArtificialLanguages 226
8.7 Conclusions 228
9 Efficient Use of Function Words inEnglish Alternations 230
9.1 Construction–FillerPredictabilityandEfficiency 230
9.2 Stay(at)Home,SaveLives! 232
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Contents ix
9.3 EfficientUseofHelp(to)Infinitive 234
9.4 AlternationGo(and)Verb 240
9.5 Conclusions 244
10 Conclusions andPerspectives 245
Appendices 250
Appendix1 List ofLanguages in theTypological Sample Used in
Chapter 7 251
Appendix2 CorpusFrequencies ofDifferent Aand P from Previous
StudiesUsed inChapter 8 253
References 256
Index 288
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