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{
    "pk": 28497,
    "title": "Efficient use of ambiguity in an early writing system:Evidence from Sumerian cuneiform",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Ambiguity has often been viewed as a hindrance to communi-cation. In contrast, Piantadosi et al. (2012) argued that ambi-guity may be useful in that it allows communication to be ef-ficient, and they found support for this argument in the spokenforms of modern English, Dutch, and German. The historicalorigins of this phenomenon cannot be probed in the case of spo-ken language, but they can for written language, as it leaves anenduring trace. Here, we explore ambiguity and efficiency inone of the earliest known written forms of language: Sumeriancuneiform. Sumerian cuneiform exhibits extensive ambiguity,and for that reason it has been considered to be poorly suited forcommunication. We find, however, that ambiguity in Sumeriancuneiform supports efficient communication, mirroring the ear-lier findings for spoken English, Dutch, and German. Thus, theearly stages of human writing exhibit evidence suggesting pres-sure for communicative efficiency.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "efficient communication; ambiguity; writing sys-tems; cuneiform; information theory"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers with Oral Presentations",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/43t177m7",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Noah",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Hermalin",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of California, Berkeley",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Terry",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Regier",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of California, Berkeley",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2019-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/28497/galley/18368/download/"
        }
    ]
}