Ted Gibson (MIT)
Information processing and cross-linguistic universals in words: Colors, numbers

Words:

• Piantadosi, S.T., Tily, H. & Gibson, E. (2011). Word lengths are optimized for efficient communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(9): 3526-3529.

Color words:

• Gibson, E., Futrell, R., Jara-Ettinger, J., Mahowald, K., Bergen, L., Ratnasingam, S., Gibson, M., Piantadosi, S.T., & Conway, B.R. (2017). Color naming across languages reflects color use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” 114(40): 10785-10790.

Number words:

• Pitt, B., Gibson, E. & Piantadosi, S. (2022). Exact number concepts are limited to the verbal count range. Psychological Science.
• Frank, M., Everett, D., Fedorenko, E. & Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition 108: 819-824.

More background reading:

• Gibson, E., Futrell, R., Piantadosi, S.T., Dautriche, I., Mahowald, K., Bergen, L. & Levy, R. (2019). How Efficiency Shapes Human Language. Trends in Cognitive Science.
• Piantadosi, S.T., Tily, H. & Gibson, E. (2012). The communicative function of ambiguity in language. Cognition 122: 280-291.
• Gordon, Peter. "Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia." Science 306.5695 (2004): 496-499.