Multiplex model of mental lexicon reveals explosive learning in humans.

ABSTRACT: Word similarities affect language acquisition and use in a multi-relational way barely accounted for in the literature. We propose a multiplex network representation of this mental lexicon of word similarities as a natural framework for investigating large-scale cognitive patterns. Our representation accounts for semantic, taxonomic, and phonological interactions and it identifies a cluster of words which are used with greater frequency, are identified, memorised, and learned more easily, and have more meanings than expected at random. This cluster emerges around age 7 through an explosive transition not reproduced by null models. We relate this explosive emergence to polysemy - redundancy in word meanings. Results indicate that the word cluster acts as a core for the lexicon, increasing b

SUBMITTER: Stella M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5797130 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature