RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The evolution of color naming reflects pressure for efficiency: Evidence from the recent past
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.11.03.467047
DO 10.1101/2021.11.03.467047
A1 Zaslavsky, Noga
A1 Garvin, Karee
A1 Kemp, Charles
A1 Tishby, Naftali
A1 Regier, Terry
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/16/2021.11.03.467047.abstract
AB 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.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.