The Efficient Design of Language: Zipf’s Law and the Principle of Least Effort

The study investigates the relationship between word length, sentence length, and frequency in various languages. The authors analyzed a large corpus of texts from over 40 languages and found that word length follows a power-law distribution, with longer words occurring less frequently. They also discovered that sentence length is a better predictor of word length than language frequency.
The authors suggest that this pattern emerges due to the efficiency of language processing in the human brain. Longer words are less common because they require more cognitive resources to process and produce, making them less efficient for communication. Similarly, longer sentences are also less frequent as they require more mental effort to construct and comprehend.
The study has implications for our understanding of how language works in the human mind and how it evolves over time. The findings suggest that language is not just a collection of words and grammar rules but rather an emergent property of the cognitive system that underlies it.
To illustrate this point, consider a language like English, where the longest word has 45 letters (pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis). It is unlikely that such long words will become part of the language’s regular vocabulary due to their cognitive cost. Instead, shorter words and simpler sentences are more likely to emerge as a result of the brain’s efficiency constraints.
In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into how language works in our minds and why it takes the form that it does. By understanding these mechanisms, we can better appreciate the complex yet efficient system that enables us to communicate with each other.