Languages reflect near-optimal semantic categories

Regier, Terry; Kay, Paul; Kheterpal, Naveen; Majid, Asifa

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Languages reflect near-optimal semantic categories

Regier, T., Kay, P., Kheterpal, N., & Majid, A. (2009). Languages reflect near-optimal semantic categories. Poster presented at the Workshop on Probabilistic Models of Cognitive Development, Banff International Research Station, Canada.

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Item Permalink: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-000F-103F-5 Version Permalink: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-000F-1041-E

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Creators:
Regier, Terry¹, Author
Kay, Paul, Author
Kheterpal, Naveen, Author
Majid, Asifa², Author

Affiliations:
1University of Chicago, ou_persistent22
2Language and Cognition Group, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society, ou_55204

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Abstract: Semantic categories in the world's languages appear to reflect both universal conceptual tendencies and linguistic convention. We argue that this mixed picture may be accounted for in terms of near-optimal partitions of semantic space - that is, partitions that near-maximize the dispersion of categories. We examine cross-language variation in the naming of categories from two semantic domains - color and space - and show that in both cases this notion of near-optimality accounts for universal tendencies while also accommodating some observed cross-language variation. This is joint work with

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Dates: Created: 2009

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Title: the Workshop on Probabilistic Models of Cognitive Development

Place of Event: Banff International Research Station, Canada

Start-/End Date: 2009-05-24 - 2009-05-29

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