When do languages use the same word for different meanings? The Goldilocks principle in colexification
Thomas Brochhagen1, Gemma Boleda2
1Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat, 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain.
Cognition
|June 14, 2022
Summary
Lexical ambiguity, where words have multiple meanings, follows a "Goldilocks principle." Related meanings are more likely to combine in languages when they are optimally related, balancing simplicity and accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Lexical ambiguity is common and systematic across languages.
- Related meanings often colexify (share a single word) due to cognitive pressure for linguistic simplicity.
- Existing research suggests relatedness influences colexification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the balance between cognitive pressure for simplicity and the need for accurate information transfer in colexification.
- To test the hypothesis that colexification follows a 'Goldilocks principle' of optimal meaning relatedness.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed colexification patterns across a large dataset of over 1200 languages.
- Examined data on approximately 1400 distinct meanings.
- Quantitatively assessed the degree of relatedness between meanings that colexify.
Main Results:
- Found significant support for the Goldilocks principle in colexification.
- Demonstrated that meanings are more likely to colexify at an optimal degree of relatedness—neither too close nor too distant.
- Identified universal patterns in lexical structure across diverse languages.
Conclusions:
- Lexical ambiguity and colexification are shaped by a balance between competing pressures for cognitive ease and information accuracy.
- Universal forces likely influence the evolution of natural language lexicons.
- Languages evolve to optimize the trade-offs between learnability and expressiveness.
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