Linguistic laws in biology

TL;DR

This paper explores the presence of linguistic laws across various biological levels, proposing a new framework to unify language patterns with biological organization and enhance understanding of natural systems.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for studying linguistic laws in biology, integrating multiple levels of analysis from description to theory building.

Findings

Linguistic laws are observed across molecular to ecological biological systems.

A new conceptual framework for analyzing linguistic laws in biology is proposed.

This approach aims to unify linguistic patterns with biological principles.

Abstract

Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century. Recently, biologists from a range of disciplines have started to explore the prevalence of these laws beyond language, finding patterns consistent with linguistic laws across multiple levels of biological organisation, from molecular (genomes, genes, and proteins) to organismal (animal behaviour) to ecological (populations and ecosystems). We propose a new conceptual framework for the study of linguistic laws in biology, comprising and integrating distinct levels of analysis, from description to prediction to theory building. Adopting this framework will provide critical new insights into the fundamental rules of organisation underpinning natural systems, unifying linguistic laws and core theory in biology.