Quantifiers satisfying semantic universals are simpler
Publication date
2021
Authors
van de Pol, Iris
Lodder, Paul
van Maanen, Leendert
Steinert-Threlkeld, Shane
Szymanik, Jakub
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DOI
Document Type
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taverne
Abstract
Despite wide variation among natural languages, there are linguistic properties thought to be universal to all or almost all natural languages. Here, we consider universals at the semantic level, in the domain of quantifiers, which are given by the properties of monotonicity, quantity, and conservativity. We investigate whether these universals might be explained by differences in complexity. We generate a large collection of quantifiers, based on a simple yet expressive grammar, and compute both their complexities and whether they adhere to these universal properties. We find that quantifiers satisfying semantic universals are less complex: they have a shorter minimal description length.
Keywords
semantic universals, generalized quantifiers, logical grammar, complexity, minimal description length, Taverne
Citation
van de Pol, I, Lodder, P, van Maanen, L, Steinert-Threlkeld, S & Szymanik, J 2021, 'Quantifiers satisfying semantic universals are simpler', Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, vol. 43, pp. 756-762. < https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1vm445rp >