What’s in a name? Computational modeling and experimental investigations on the non-arbitrariness of word label choices

名字里有什么？

• 批准号: 459717703
• 负责人: Dr. Fritz Günther
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Psychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Independent Junior Research Groups
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/459717703?language=en
• 关键词: What; name; Computational; modeling; experimental

It is traditionally assumed that words are assigned to concepts as arbitrary labels. In reality however, labels are always selected in a specific linguistic, historical, and social context, which informs and restricts label choices: For example, the existence of the word “phone” makes it very sensible to use the word “mobile phone” for a portable phone. On the other hand, labels almost always bring with them certain connotations and implications: the German “Völkerwanderung” describes the exact same concept as the Italian “invasione barbariche”, but the associations are quite different. In the project proposed here, we plan to investigate both sides of this phenomenon – why do we pick the labels we choose, and what are the consequences of these choices – from a cognitive point of view. To this end, central properties of both existing and novel words – related to their form and especially their meaning – will be represented in an objective and quantitative manner, by employing recent developments from the artificial intelligence field of natural language processing. Thus, combining computational modelling techniques with experimental methodology from general and social psychology, the present project aims at establishing a comprehensive theoretical framework for the choice and implications of word labels. The project consists of three major work packages. The studies of the first work package investigate when and which new word labels are coined by speakers. On the one hand, this includes examining the concept properties and contexts that lead speakers to generate a new label for a given concept. On the other hand, it includes predicting which labels are chosen, with the aim of establishing a computational model for the goodness/adequacy of labels given a concept. The methods of the first work package range from large-scale corpus studies over observation of natural communication to various signaling game-paradigms. The studies of the second work package examine direct social influences on label choices, since labels are always a social convention of a speaker community. The main factors of interest here are variables connected to the interaction partners in a social setting where both partners start with different labels for the same concept (such as their willingness to accept new labels, or their social status). The studies of this work package thus employ methods from social psychology in personal communication settings to examine how such social factors interact with the “goodness of labels” to determine which label is finally adapted by a speaker.Finally, the studies of the third work package investigate the implications and connotations of labels, in terms of semantic association, affective evaluation, and sensory perception. In these studies, where different labels for the very same concept will be presented to different speakers, we aim at predicting the connotations from the quantitative properties of the word labels.

传统上认为，词被分配给概念作为任意标签。然而，在现实中，标签总是在特定的语言、历史和社会背景下选择的，这通知并限制了标签的选择：例如，单词“phone”的存在使得使用单词“移动的phone”来表示便携式电话是非常明智的。另一方面，标签几乎总是带有一定的内涵和含义：德国的“Völkerwanderung”与意大利的“invasione barbariche”描述了完全相同的概念，但联系却截然不同。在这里提出的项目中，我们计划从认知的角度研究这一现象的两个方面-为什么我们选择我们选择的标签，以及这些选择的后果是什么。为此，现有的和新的单词的中心属性-与它们的形式，特别是它们的意义-将以客观和定量的方式表示，通过采用自然语言处理的人工智能领域的最新发展。因此，结合计算建模技术与实验方法，从一般和社会心理学，本项目的目的是建立一个全面的理论框架的选择和含义的词标签。该项目包括三个主要工作包。第一个工作包的研究调查何时以及哪些新词标签是由扬声器。一方面，这包括检查概念属性和上下文，导致扬声器为给定的概念生成一个新的标签。另一方面，它包括预测选择哪些标签，目的是建立一个计算模型，用于给定概念的标签的良好性/充分性。第一个工作包的方法范围从大规模的语料库研究，观察自然的沟通，各种信号博弈范式。第二个工作包的研究检查标签选择的直接社会影响，因为标签总是一个社会公约的发言人社区。这里感兴趣的主要因素是与社交环境中的互动伙伴相关的变量，其中两个伙伴都从同一概念的不同标签开始（例如他们接受新标签的意愿或他们的社会地位）。因此，本研究采用社会心理学的方法，在个人交际环境中考察这些社会因素如何与“标签的善”相互作用，从而决定说话者最终采用哪种标签。最后，第三个研究从语义联想、情感评价和感官知觉三个方面考察标签的含义和内涵。在这些研究中，对于同一个概念，不同的标签将被呈现给不同的扬声器，我们的目标是预测的内涵，从数量属性的词标签。