Communicative Efficiency

All living beings try to save effort, and humans are no exception. This groundbreaking book shows how we save time and energy during communication by unconsciously making efficient choices in grammar, lexicon and phonology. It presents a new theory of 'communicative efficiency', the idea that language is designed to be as efficient as possible, as a system of communication. The new framework accounts for the diverse manifestations of communicative efficiency across a typologically broad range of languages, using various corpus-based and statistical approaches to explain speakers' bias towards efficiency. The author's unique interdisciplinary expertise allows her to provide rich evidence from a broad range of language sciences. She integrates diverse insights from over a hundred years of research into this comprehensible new theory, which she presents step-by-step in clear and accessible language. It is essential reading for language scientists, cognitive scientists and anyone interested in language use and communication.

In this dissertation, I argue that a variety of probabilistic patterns in natural language phonology derive from communicative efficiency. I present evidence from phonetically transcribed dictionaries of 60 languages from 25 major language families showing that both probability distributions over phonological structures licensed by the categorical grammar, and the global organization of the phonological lexicon as a whole facilitate the efficient communication of intended messages from speaker to listener.Specifically, I show that the occurrence probabilities of different grammatical structures render natural language phonology an efficient code for communication given the effort involved in producing different categories and the specific kinds of noise introduced by the human language channel. I also present evidence that co-occurrence restrictions on consonants sharing place features serve a communicative purpose in that they facilitate the identification of words with respect to each other. Furthermore, I show that the organization of the phonological lexicon as a whole is subject to communicative efficiency. Concretely, I show that words in human language preferentially rely on highly perceptible contrasts for distinctness, beyond what is expected from the probabilistic patterning of the individual sounds that distinguish them. This shows that redundancy in the phonological code is not randomly distributed, but exists to supplement imperceptibile distinctions between larger units as needed.I argue that cross-linguistic biases in the distributions of individual sounds arise from humans using their language in ways that accommodate anticipated mistransmission (Jurafsky et al. 2001, van Son and Pols 2003, Aylett and Turk 2004) thus presenting a serious challenge to theories relegating the emergence of communicative efficiency in phonology to properties of the human language channel only (Ohala 1981, Blevins 2004, 2006). Furthermore, I present preliminary computational and experimental evidence that the optimization of the lexicon as a whole could have arisen from the aggregate effects of speakers' biases to use globally distinct word forms over the course of a language's history (cf Martin, 2007).

This book argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication, an approach that has far-reaching theoretical consequences for issues such as ease of processing, language universals, complexity, and competing and cooperating principles.

Languages have deep political significance beyond communication: a common language can strengthen cultural bonds and social trust, or it may exacerbate cultural differences and power imbalances. Language regimes that emerge from political bargains can centralize power by favoring the language of one ethnolinguistic group, share power by recognizing multiple mother tongues, or neutralize power through the use of a lingua franca. Cultural egoism, communicative efficiency, or collective equality determines the choice. As Amy H. Liu demonstrates, the conditions surrounding the choice of a language regime also have a number of implications for a nation's economy. Standardizing Diversity examines the relationship between the distribution of linguistic power and economic growth. Using a newly assembled dataset of all language-in-education policies in Asia from 1945 to 2005 and drawing on fieldwork data from Malaysia and Singapore, Liu shows language regimes that recognize a lingua franca exclusively—or at least above all others—tend to develop social trust, attract foreign investment, and stimulate economic growth. Particularly at high levels of heterogeneity, the recognition of a lingua franca fosters equality and facilitates efficiency. Her findings challenge the prevailing belief that linguistic diversity inhibits economic growth, suggesting instead that governments in even the most ethnically heterogeneous countries have institutional tools to standardize their diversity and to thrive economically.

Presents the technological advancements that enable high spectral-efficiency and high-capacity fiber-optic communication systems and networks This book examines key technology advances in high spectral-efficiency fiber-optic communication systems and networks, enabled by the use of coherent detection and digital signal processing (DSP). The first of this book’s 16 chapters is a detailed introduction. Chapter 2 reviews the modulation formats, while Chapter 3 focuses on detection and error correction technologies for coherent optical communication systems. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to Nyquist-WDM and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). In chapter 6, polarization and nonlinear impairments in coherent optical communication systems are discussed. The fiber nonlinear effects in a non-dispersion-managed system are covered in chapter 7. Chapter 8 describes linear impairment equalization and Chapter 9 discusses various nonlinear mitigation techniques. Signal synchronization is covered in Chapters 10 and 11. Chapter 12 describes the main constraints put on the DSP algorithms by the hardware structure. Chapter 13 addresses the fundamental concepts and recent progress of photonic integration. Optical performance monitoring and elastic optical network technology are the subjects of Chapters 14 and 15. Finally, Chapter 16 discusses spatial-division multiplexing and MIMO processing technology, a potential solution to solve the capacity limit of single-mode fibers. • Contains basic theories and up-to-date technology advancements in each chapter • Describes how capacity-approaching coding schemes based on low-density parity check (LDPC) and spatially coupled LDPC codes can be constructed by combining iterative demodulation and decoding • Demonstrates that fiber nonlinearities can be accurately described by some analytical models, such as GN-EGN model • Presents impairment equalization and mitigation techniques Enabling Technologies for High Spectral-efficiency Coherent Optical Communication Networks is a reference for researchers, engineers, and graduate students. Xiang Zhou is a Tech Lead within Google Platform Advanced Technology. Before joining Google, he was with AT&T Labs, conducting research on various aspects of optical transmission and photonics networking technologies. Dr. Zhou is an OSA fellow and an associate editor for Optics Express. He has extensive publications in the field of optical communications. Chongjin Xie is a senior director at Ali Infrastructure Service, Alibaba Group. Before joining Alibaba Group, he was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent. Dr. Xie is a fellow of OSA and senior member of IEEE. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Lightwave Technology and has served in various conference committees.

This volume looks at current issues in Intercultural Pragmatics from an applied perspective. The content is organized in three sections that encompass the primary applications of intercultural exchanges: the linguistic and cognitive domain, the social and cultural domain, and the discourse and stylistics domain. The chapters analyze real language situations in English, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Filipino or Polish.

The textbook discusses design and analysis of microwave high power and high efficiency amplifiers for communications, appropriate for undergraduate, post-graduate students, practical circuit designers and researchers in the field of electronics and communication engineering. This book covers basics of III-V group semiconductor materials and GaAs and GaN based High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) most suitable for microwave and mm wave power amplifiers required for present wireless communication systems and upcoming 4G and 5G mobile base stations. The book describes design and analysis of classical class of amplifier operations such as Class-A, B, AB, C and F. The coverage extends to advanced classes of amplifier operation such as extended continuous Class-B/Class-J, and extended continuous Class-F operations for broadband, high power and high efficiency performance. Analytical expressions are derived for circuit elements and performance parameters for clear understanding and required for practical design of power amplifiers. Each topic is supplemented with suitable schematic diagrams, analytical expressions and plotted results for clear understanding.