This paper explores how efficiency promotes the use of structure in language. It starts from the premise that one of language’s central characteristics is to provide a means for saying novel things about novel circumstances, its creativity. It is reasonable to expect that in a rich and changing environment, language will be incomplete. This encourages reliance on structure. It is shown how creative language use emerges form common knowledge structures, even if those structures are consistent with an a priori absence of a common language.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Koordination und Lernen mit einer Partialsprache) In diesem Beitrag wird die Anwendung von Strukturen in einer Sprache aus Effizienzsicht begründet. Der Artikel geht davon aus, daß eines der wichtigsten Merkmale der Sprache in ihrer Kreativität zu sehen ist, d. h. als Mittel, um Neues über neue Sachverhalte auszusagen. Es ist deshalb zu erwarten, daß in einer vielfältigen und sich verändernden Umwelt die Sprache unvollständig bleiben wird. Dies fördert die Anwendung von Strukturen. Es wird gezeigt, wie die kreative Sprachanwendung aus allgemeinen Wissensstrukturen entsteht, auch dann, wenn diese Strukturen a priori noch keine gemeinsame Sprache bilden.
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Paper provided by Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG) in its series CIG Working Papers with number
FS IV 98-11.
Length: 36 pages Date of creation: Sep 1998 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in the Journal of Economic Theory, Vol. 95(1), November 2000, pp. 1-36. Handle: RePEc:wzb:wzebiv:fsiv98-11
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Wernerfelt, Birger, 2003.
"Organizational Languages,"
Working papers
4278-03, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
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