Finding structure in logographic writing with library learning
This work offers insights into the fundamental computational principles underlying human cognition and communication systems, though it is incremental in applying existing library learning techniques to a new domain.
The paper tackled the problem of understanding combinatoriality in human language by developing a computational framework to discover structure in logographic writing systems, specifically Chinese, and demonstrated that the system evolves towards simplification under pressures for representational efficiency.
One hallmark of human language is its combinatoriality -- reusing a relatively small inventory of building blocks to create a far larger inventory of increasingly complex structures. In this paper, we explore the idea that combinatoriality in language reflects a human inductive bias toward representational efficiency in symbol systems. We develop a computational framework for discovering structure in a writing system. Built on top of state-of-the-art library learning and program synthesis techniques, our computational framework discovers known linguistic structures in the Chinese writing system and reveals how the system evolves towards simplification under pressures for representational efficiency. We demonstrate how a library learning approach, utilizing learned abstractions and compression, may help reveal the fundamental computational principles that underlie the creation of combinatorial structures in human cognition, and offer broader insights into the evolution of efficient communication systems.