Given current data, only a few binary Boolean operators are expressed in lexically simple fashion in the world's languages: and, or, nor. These do not occur in every combination, for example, nor is not observed by itself. To explain these cross-linguistic patterns, we propose an encoding of Boolean operators as update procedures to accept or reject information in a context. We define a measure of conceptual simplicity for such updates, on which attested operators are conceptually simpler than the remaining Booleans. Moreover, we show that language evolution selects for the attested lexical inventories by minimizing the complexity of using a lexical inventory compositionally to convey precise information.

中文翻译：

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断言、否定和布尔运算符的演变

给定当前数据，世界上的语言中只有少数二元布尔运算符以词汇简单的方式表达：and、or、nor。例如，这些并不是在每种组合中都会出现，也不是单独观察到的。为了解释这些跨语言模式，我们提出了布尔运算符的编码作为更新过程来接受或拒绝上下文中的信息。我们为此类更新定义了概念简单性的衡量标准，其中经过验证的运算符在概念上比其余布尔值更简单。此外，我们表明语言进化通过最小化使用词汇清单组合来传达精确信息的复杂性来选择经过验证的词汇清单。