BOOK

Abstract

Languages transmit information. They are vessels carrying meaning across metres, kilometres, and around the globe. This book harnesses information theory to measure word-level differences in more than 1200 languages. It further models geographic, demographic and social factors to explain the diversity of encoding strategies. The results corroborate the framework of languages as adaptive communication systems shaped by the varying needs of their users.

Link to publisher website.

Data and R code

The folder AdaptLang.zip contains all the data and code relevant for replicating the results of the main analyses (Chapter 4 to Chapter 10) of this book.

Please see the README file contained in the folder for further details.