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Also called the Economy Principle, the Principle of Least Effort involves maximizing the result with the least amount of effort.
Adjacent sounds may influence each other in pronunciation, which makes them become similar or the same or a new sound, reducing the amount of effort.
Shortening words and phrases takes less effort.
We can communicate things analytically through a phrase or sentence or synthetically with one word.
Proposed in 1949 by Harvard linguist George Kingsley Zipf in Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort.
The English language makes use of about 5 million abbreviations.
The latter requires less effort and the English language is very synthetic.
Most of the words in English can be used for multiple parts of speech without having to change form.
Grounding is about establishing common ground in communication.
Clark, Herbert H., and Susan E. Brennan. "Grounding in communication." Perspectives on socially shared cognition 13.1991 (1991): 127-149. 24 Sept 2013.
The adoption of texting and social media services has led to a unique environment in communication.
The principle of least effort can be detrimental to conversations because it doesn't effectively allow for common ground to be established.
Informal speech and relaxed rules of grammar are the norm.
Guiying, Zhou. "On The Embodiment Of Economy Principle In The English Language." English Language & Literature Studies 2.2 (2012): 100-104. Communication & Mass Media Complete. 24 Sept. 2013.
The principle operates on the assumption that what is communicated will be both spoken and heard effectively.
Twitter’s 140 character limit for tweets encourages being economical with what you’re trying to say.
Vicentini, Alessandra. "The economy principle in language." Notes and Observations from Early Modern English Grammars. Mots, Palabras, Words 3 (2003): 37-57. 24 Sept. 2013.
We give ourselves a limited amount of time to figure out what we want to say and then say it. We are prone to changing things mid-sentence, resulting in improper communication.
Hashtags can exemplify the principle of least effort gone wrong.
Hashtags can disrupt communication. In tweets with both sentences and hashtags, the person is attempting to be both analytical and synthetic.
Without that common ground, we cannot know if what we are trying to say will make sense to the listener, which sometimes results in “try markers.”
We make mistakes. We slip up, we try to correct ourselves, and we sometimes disrupt the flow with filler.
People try to incorporate hashtags as both words in a sentence, as well as subjects, which disrupts the flow of reading.