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

传统上，人们认为单词是作为任意标签分配给概念的。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，这通知和限制了标签的选择：例如，“phone”这个词的存在使得使用“Mobile phone”这个词来表示便携式电话是非常明智的。另一方面，标签几乎总是伴随着特定的内涵和暗示：德语的“Völkerwanderung”描述了与意大利的“侵略者野蛮人”完全相同的概念，但联想却截然不同。在这里提出的项目中，我们计划从认知的角度来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，现有单词和新词的核心属性--与其形式有关，特别是与其含义有关--将通过利用自然语言处理的人工智能领域的最新发展，以客观和定量的方式表示。因此，本项目将计算建模技术与普通心理学和社会心理学的实验方法相结合，旨在为词语标签的选择和含义建立一个全面的理论框架。该项目由三个主要工作包组成。对第一个工作包的研究调查了说话者何时以及哪些新单词标签是由说话者创造的。一方面，这包括检查导致说话者为给定概念生成新标签的概念属性和上下文。另一方面，它包括预测选择哪些标签，目的是为给定概念的标签的好坏/充分性建立计算模型。第一个工作包的方法包括从大规模语料库研究到观察自然交流到各种信号博弈范式。第二个工作包的研究考察了标签对标签选择的直接社会影响，因为标签总是说话者社区的社会惯例。这里感兴趣的主要因素是与社交环境中的交互伙伴相关的变量，其中双方以相同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“标签的好坏”相互作用，以决定说话人最终改编哪一个标签。最后，第三个工作包的研究从语义联想、情感评价和感官感知三个方面考察了标签的含义和内涵。在这些研究中，同一个概念的不同标签将呈现给不同的说话者，我们的目标是从单词标签的数量特性预测其内涵。

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.