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How (Non-)Optimal is the Lexicon?
[article]
2021
arXiv
pre-print
The mapping of lexical meanings to wordforms is a major feature of natural languages. While usage pressures might assign short words to frequent meanings (Zipf's law of abbreviation), the need for a productive and open-ended vocabulary, local constraints on sequences of symbols, and various other factors all shape the lexicons of the world's languages. Despite their importance in shaping lexical structure, the relative contributions of these factors have not been fully quantified. Taking a
arXiv:2104.14279v2
fatcat:qs26nmi3ejc3hcptn7hl4kkk7q