Analysis of an information-theoretic model for communication

DOI10.1088/1742-5468/2012/12/P12022zbMATH Open1456.94004arXiv1207.0238OpenAlexW3104950195MaRDI QIDQ3301328FDOQ3301328

Authors: Nicholas R. Moloney, Eduardo G. Altmann, Ronald Dickman 

Publication date: 11 August 2020

Published in: Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We study the cost-minimization problem posed by Ferrer i Cancho and Sol'e in their model of communication that aimed at explaining the origin of Zipf's law [PNAS 100, 788 (2003)]. Direct analysis shows that the minimum cost is $minlambda,1-lambda$, where $lambda$ determines the relative weights of speaker's and hearer's costs in the total, as shown in several previous works using different approaches. The nature and multiplicity of the minimizing solution changes discontinuously at $lambda=1/2$, being qualitatively different for $lambda<1/2$, $lambda>1/2$, and $lambda=1/2$. Zipf's law is found only in a vanishing fraction of the minimum-cost solutions at $lambda=1/2$ and therefore is not explained by this model. Imposing the further condition of equal costs yields distributions substantially closer to Zipf's law, but significant differences persist. We also investigate the solutions reached by the previously used minimization algorithm and find that they correctly recover global minimum states at the transition.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0238

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Communication theory (94A05) Information theory (general) (94A15)

Cites Work

• A Mathematical Theory of Communication
• The evolutionary dynamics of the lexical matrix
• Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language

Cited In (6)

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• A scaling law beyond Zipf's law and its relation to heaps' law
• On the origin of ambiguity in efficient communication
• Mathematical models of textual data: a short review
• A Model of Positive and Negative Information in thé Standard Framework of Communication Theory — Application to Encoding
• Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language

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