Showing papers on "Principle of least effort published in 2007"

Scale-Free Networks in Phonological and Orthographic Wordform Lexicons

Abstract: Languages are constrained by the physical, perceptual, and cognitive properties of human communication systems. For instance, there are upper bounds on the amount of time available for communication. These bounds constrain the lengths of phonological and orthographic codes so that communication can proceed apace. There are also constraints on the amount of linguistic information that can be condensed into a given span of perception or production (Liberman, 1967). These constraints place lower bounds on the amounts of speech activity needed for phonological and orthographic codes. Constraints on languages often work in opposition to one another, perhaps the most famously proposed example being Zipf’s principle of least effort (Zipf, 1949). On the one hand, memory constraints produce a tendency towards using fewer numbers of words to reduce memory effort needed to store and access them. A vocabulary that requires minimal memory effort on the part of the speaker is one that uses a single word for all purposes. On the other hand, ambiguity constraints produce a tendency towards using larger numbers of words to reduce the number of meanings per word, and thereby reduce effort needed to disambiguate word meanings. A vocabulary that requires minimal disambiguation effort on the part of the listener is one that uses a different word for every distinct concept. The principle of least effort states that natural languages are constrained to minimize both speakers’ and listeners’ efforts, and only by balancing them can effective communication be achieved. It is generally accepted that language usage must strike a balance between these two kinds of effort. However, Zipf controversially claimed that the principle of least effort is responsible for a particular kind of scaling law (also known as a power law) that appears to be true of word usage throughout the world. The scaling law states that the probability of using a given word W in language L is approximately inversely proportional to its frequency rank,

Gaming: The Technology / Energy Efficiency Hook

Abstract: We examine the draw and consequences of gambling, a.k.a. gaming, from a somewhat unorthodox perspective: exploitation of the urge to be energy efficient in a technology transformed world. Our own draw will be on the contention of the late Harvard linguist, George Kingsley Zipfi that human behavior is guided by "The Principle of Least Effort." We argue that the powerful attraction of gaming is self-similar, in a fractal sense, to the seductive power of new technology. The promise of gaining access to what we want, when we want, with minimal, ideally, no, exertion. Winning, like technology, does the work so that we don't have to. The deep-seated, "reptilian brain," urge to take effort relieving /food energy conserving, shortcuts when offered and convenient is addicting. It feeds on itself. Like the frog that boils to death in slowly heated water, like the gambling addict who doesn't think he has a problem, like the more than 30 percent of Americans who have eaten and non-exercised their way into the legions of the obese, the ship-out-of-water instinct to let the other guy do the work is getting us into hotter and hotter water. What's needed is a thermometer alerting the cortex to the possibility that winning, like all things "Made Easy, " is not necessarily knee-jerk good. Drawing on an article by New York Times reporter, Gary Rivlin, our supporting case-in-point is the rapidly advancing technical exploitation with consequences of the urge to gain with least effort in the guise of slots.