The evolution of the exponent of Zipf's law in language ontogeny.
The evolution of the exponent of Zipf's law in language ontogeny.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0053227
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Ferrer-i-Cancho R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Baixeries J;Elvevåg B;Ferrer-i-Cancho R
众所周知，词频是按照齐普夫定律排列的。然而，人们对该定律参数的依赖性和通信系统的复杂性知之甚少。语言进化的许多模型假设，随着通信系统的复杂性增加，定律的指数保持不变。通过对儿童语言的纵向研究，我们分析了参与对话的儿童和成人言语的词级分布。成年人通常包括家庭成员(例如，父母)或进行研究的调查人员。我们对齐普夫定律演化的分析得出了两个主要意想不到的结果。首先，在儿童中，这一定律的指数往往会随着时间的推移而下降，而在成年人中，这一趋势更弱，因此这表明这不仅仅是成人语言的镜像效应。其次，尽管该定律的指数在成人中更稳定，但其指数降至1以下，这是儿童和成人假设的指数的典型值。我们的分析还显示，平均话语长度(MLU)，即句法复杂性的简单估计，随着指数的降低而增加的趋势。该指数和一个简单的句法复杂性指标(MLU)的并行演化支持了Zipf定律的指数和语言复杂性是相互关联的假设。关于单词排名的齐普夫定律是一个幂定律的假设，在成人和儿童中都是1的恒定指数，这一假设需要修改。
It is well-known that word frequencies arrange themselves according to Zipf's law. However, little is known about the dependency of the parameters of the law and the complexity of a communication system. Many models of the evolution of language assume that the exponent of the law remains constant as the complexity of a communication systems increases. Using longitudinal studies of child language, we analysed the word rank distribution for the speech of children and adults participating in conversations. The adults typically included family members (e.g., parents) or the investigators conducting the research. Our analysis of the evolution of Zipf's law yields two main unexpected results. First, in children the exponent of the law tends to decrease over time while this tendency is weaker in adults, thus suggesting this is not a mere mirror effect of adult speech. Second, although the exponent of the law is more stable in adults, their exponents fall below 1 which is the typical value of the exponent assumed in both children and adults. Our analysis also shows a tendency of the mean length of utterances (MLU), a simple estimate of syntactic complexity, to increase as the exponent decreases. The parallel evolution of the exponent and a simple indicator of syntactic complexity (MLU) supports the hypothesis that the exponent of Zipf's law and linguistic complexity are inter-related. The assumption that Zipf's law for word ranks is a power-law with a constant exponent of one in both adults and children needs to be revised.
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影响因子：
0.4
作者：
Corominas-Murtra, Bernat;Valverde, Sergi;Sole, Ricard
通讯作者：
Sole, Ricard
影响因子：
1.6
作者：
Cancho, Ramon Ferrer i
通讯作者：
Cancho, Ramon Ferrer i
DOI：
10.1080/01690960400001721
发表时间：
2006-01-01
期刊：
LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES
影响因子：
--
作者：
Behrens, H
通讯作者：
Behrens, H
影响因子：
3.3
作者：
Bernhardsson, Sebastian;da Rocha, Luis Enrique Correa;Minnhagen, Petter
通讯作者：
Minnhagen, Petter
影响因子：
1.8
作者：
Demuth, Katherine;Culbertson, Jennifer;Alter, Jennifer
通讯作者：
Alter, Jennifer