James Winters
Biographic Data
| ID | 114611 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Winters |
| GIVEN NAMES | James |
| FAMILY NAME | Winters |
| SIGNATURE | WINTERS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2982-2991 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 129 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Simplification Is Not Dominant in the Evolution of Chinese Characters
Linguistic systems are hypothesised to be shaped by pressures towards communicative efficiency that drive processes of simplification. A longstanding illustration of this idea is the claim that Chinese characters have progressively simplified over time. Here we test this claim by analyzing a dataset with more than half a million images of Chinese characters spanning more than 3,000 years of recorded history. We find no consistent evidence of simp…
Cultural Evolution of Precise and Agreed‐Upon Semantic Conventions in a Multiplayer Gaming App
The amount of information conveyed by linguistic conventions depends on their precision, yet the codes that humans and other animals use to communicate are quite ambiguous: they may map several vague meanings to the same symbol. How does semantic precision evolve, and what are the constraints that limit it? We address this question using a multiplayer gaming app, where individuals communicate with one another in a scaled-up referential game. Here…
Colour terms
Artificial language games give researchers the opportunity to investigate the emergence and evolution of semantic structure, i.e. the organisation of meaning spaces into discrete categories. A possible issue with this approach is that categories mightcarry over from participants’ native languages, a potential bias that has mostly been ignored. In a referential communication game, we compare colour terms from three different languages to those of …
Standards and quantification of coin iconography
The use of digital technologies and big data in the humanities and social sciences provided many opportunities for cultural heritage management and research, enabling data sharing and interdisciplinary collaborations. These developments increased the need for standardized data formats. General and domain-specific standards for describing and classifying cultural data, based on linked data principles, are developed to support increasingly numerous…
The Predictable Evolution of Letter Shapes
A familiar story about the evolution of alphabets is that individual letters originated in iconic representations of real things. Over time, these naturalistic pictures became simplified into abstract forms. Thus, the iconic ox's head 𓃾 of Egyptian hieroglyphics transformed into the Phoenician 𐤀 and eventually the Roman letter A. In this vein, attempts to theorize the evolution of writing have tended to propose variations on a model of unilinea…
Color terms
Artificial language games give researchers the opportunity to investigate the emergence and evolution of semantic structure, i.e. the organization of meaning spaces into discrete categories. A possible issue for this approach is that categories might simply carry over from participants’ native languages, a potential bias that has mostly been ignored. We investigate this in a referential communication game by comparing color terms from three diffe…
Ancient coin designs encoded increasing amounts of economic information over centuries
Coinage, the practice of minting small bits of metal with distinctive marks, appearing in the second half of the 7th century BCE, had a transformative impact upon ancient economies and societies. Controversies endure concerning the original function of ancient coinage, in particular the respective role of states and markets in its emergence. Applying information-theoretic measures to a corpus of 6859 distinct coin types from the Ancient Mediterra…
Social Structure and Language Structure
Recent studies have taken advantage of newly available, large-scale, cross-linguistic data and new statistical techniques to look at the relationship between language structure and social structure. These ‘nomothetic’ approaches contrast with more traditional approaches and a tension is observed between proponents of each method. We review some nomothetic studies and point out some challenges that must be overcome. However, we argue that nomothet…
Secure from Rash Assault
Sustaining Democracy
Continental Divide
Issue-Specific Agenda-Setting
The Agenda-Setting hypothesis of mass media effects posits a direct, causal link between the issues and personalities emphasized in the communication media and public salience of those issues and personalities. While this broad statement has been useful for making general assertions to the effect that the media "tell us what to think about," it remains a general statement which must be further delineated (McCombs, 1977
Agenda Setting for the Civil Right Issue
A comparison of front-page New York Times content and national public opinion from 1954 to 1976 showed strong agenda-setting effects for the civil rights issue. For this issue, the optimal effect span was the four- to six-week period immediately prior to field work. These findings contradict previous findings and assertions about a cumulative media effect over a longer period of time
Defining Local News
Professor of Democracy. The Life of Charles Henry Pearso, 1830-1894
Agenda Setting for the Civil Right Issue
A comparison of front-page New York Times content and national public opinion from 1954 to 1976 showed strong agenda-setting effects for the civil rights issue. For this issue, the optimal effect span was the four- to six-week period immediately prior to field work. These findings contradict previous findings and assertions about a cumulative media effect over a longer period of time
Issue-Specific Agenda-Setting
The Agenda-Setting hypothesis of mass media effects posits a direct, causal link between the issues and personalities emphasized in the communication media and public salience of those issues and personalities. While this broad statement has been useful for making general assertions to the effect that the media "tell us what to think about," it remains a general statement which must be further delineated (McCombs, 1977
Sustaining Democracy
The Predictable Evolution of Letter Shapes
A familiar story about the evolution of alphabets is that individual letters originated in iconic representations of real things. Over time, these naturalistic pictures became simplified into abstract forms. Thus, the iconic ox's head 𓃾 of Egyptian hieroglyphics transformed into the Phoenician 𐤀 and eventually the Roman letter A. In this vein, attempts to theorize the evolution of writing have tended to propose variations on a model of unilinea…
Defining Local News
Ancient coin designs encoded increasing amounts of economic information over centuries
Coinage, the practice of minting small bits of metal with distinctive marks, appearing in the second half of the 7th century BCE, had a transformative impact upon ancient economies and societies. Controversies endure concerning the original function of ancient coinage, in particular the respective role of states and markets in its emergence. Applying information-theoretic measures to a corpus of 6859 distinct coin types from the Ancient Mediterra…
Professor of Democracy. The Life of Charles Henry Pearso, 1830-1894
Agenda Setting for the Civil Right Issue
A comparison of front-page New York Times content and national public opinion from 1954 to 1976 showed strong agenda-setting effects for the civil rights issue. For this issue, the optimal effect span was the four- to six-week period immediately prior to field work. These findings contradict previous findings and assertions about a cumulative media effect over a longer period of time
Defining Local News
Issue-Specific Agenda-Setting
The Agenda-Setting hypothesis of mass media effects posits a direct, causal link between the issues and personalities emphasized in the communication media and public salience of those issues and personalities. While this broad statement has been useful for making general assertions to the effect that the media "tell us what to think about," it remains a general statement which must be further delineated (McCombs, 1977
Continental Divide
Sustaining Democracy
Secure from Rash Assault
Social Structure and Language Structure
Recent studies have taken advantage of newly available, large-scale, cross-linguistic data and new statistical techniques to look at the relationship between language structure and social structure. These ‘nomothetic’ approaches contrast with more traditional approaches and a tension is observed between proponents of each method. We review some nomothetic studies and point out some challenges that must be overcome. However, we argue that nomothet…
Ancient coin designs encoded increasing amounts of economic information over centuries
Coinage, the practice of minting small bits of metal with distinctive marks, appearing in the second half of the 7th century BCE, had a transformative impact upon ancient economies and societies. Controversies endure concerning the original function of ancient coinage, in particular the respective role of states and markets in its emergence. Applying information-theoretic measures to a corpus of 6859 distinct coin types from the Ancient Mediterra…
Color terms
Artificial language games give researchers the opportunity to investigate the emergence and evolution of semantic structure, i.e. the organization of meaning spaces into discrete categories. A possible issue for this approach is that categories might simply carry over from participants’ native languages, a potential bias that has mostly been ignored. We investigate this in a referential communication game by comparing color terms from three diffe…
Colour terms
Artificial language games give researchers the opportunity to investigate the emergence and evolution of semantic structure, i.e. the organisation of meaning spaces into discrete categories. A possible issue with this approach is that categories mightcarry over from participants’ native languages, a potential bias that has mostly been ignored. In a referential communication game, we compare colour terms from three different languages to those of …
Standards and quantification of coin iconography
The use of digital technologies and big data in the humanities and social sciences provided many opportunities for cultural heritage management and research, enabling data sharing and interdisciplinary collaborations. These developments increased the need for standardized data formats. General and domain-specific standards for describing and classifying cultural data, based on linked data principles, are developed to support increasingly numerous…
The Predictable Evolution of Letter Shapes
A familiar story about the evolution of alphabets is that individual letters originated in iconic representations of real things. Over time, these naturalistic pictures became simplified into abstract forms. Thus, the iconic ox's head 𓃾 of Egyptian hieroglyphics transformed into the Phoenician 𐤀 and eventually the Roman letter A. In this vein, attempts to theorize the evolution of writing have tended to propose variations on a model of unilinea…
Simplification Is Not Dominant in the Evolution of Chinese Characters
Linguistic systems are hypothesised to be shaped by pressures towards communicative efficiency that drive processes of simplification. A longstanding illustration of this idea is the claim that Chinese characters have progressively simplified over time. Here we test this claim by analyzing a dataset with more than half a million images of Chinese characters spanning more than 3,000 years of recorded history. We find no consistent evidence of simp…
Cultural Evolution of Precise and Agreed‐Upon Semantic Conventions in a Multiplayer Gaming App
The amount of information conveyed by linguistic conventions depends on their precision, yet the codes that humans and other animals use to communicate are quite ambiguous: they may map several vague meanings to the same symbol. How does semantic precision evolve, and what are the constraints that limit it? We address this question using a multiplayer gaming app, where individuals communicate with one another in a scaled-up referential game. Here…
Computer Science (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Categorization, perception, and language (5 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Geography (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Mathematics (4 works) · Media Studies and Communication (4 works) · Sociology (4 works)