Human Languages with Greater Information Density Increase Communication Speed, but Decrease Conversation Breadth
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Language is the primary medium through which human information is communicated and coordination is achieved. One of the most important language functions is to categorize the world so messages can be communicated through conversation. While we know a great deal about how human languages vary in their encoding of information within semantic domains such as color, sound, number, locomotion, time, space, human activities, gender, body parts and biology, little is known about the global structure of semantic information and its effect on human communication. Using large-scale computation, artificial intelligence techniques, and massive, parallel corpora across 15 subject areas–including religion, economics, medicine, entertainment, politics, and technology–in 999 languages, here we show substantial variation in the information and semantic density of languages and their consequences for human communication and coordination. In contrast to prior work, we demonstrate that higher density languages communicate information much more quickly relative to lower density languages. Then, using over 9,000 real-life conversations across 14 languages and 90,000 Wikipedia articles across 140 languages, we show that because there are more ways to discuss any given topic in denser languages, conversations and articles retrace and cycle over a narrower conceptual terrain. These results demonstrate an important source of variation across the human communicative channel, suggesting that the structure of language shapes the nature and texture of conversation, with important consequences for the behavior of groups, organizations, markets, and societies.
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