Contents of
Glottometrics 11, 2005 (including abstracts)
| Ferrer
i Cancho, Ramon; Servedio, Vito |
|
| Can simple models explain Zipf’s law for all exponents? | 1-8 |
Abstract. H. Simon proposed a simple stochastic process for
explaining Zipf’s law for word frequencies. Here we introduce two
similar generalizations of Simon’s model that cover the same range of
exponents as the standard Simon model. The mathematical approach followed
minimizes the amount of mathematical background needed for deriving the
exponent, compared to previous approaches to the standard Simon’s
model. Reviewing what is known from other simple explanations of Zipf’s
law, we conclude there is no single radically simple explanation covering
the whole range of variation of the exponent of Zipf’s law in humans.
The meaningfulness of Zipf’s law for word frequencies remains an
open question.
|
|
| Best, Karl-Heinz | |
|
Zur Häufigkeit von Buchstaben, Leerzeichen und anderen Schriftzeichen in deutschen Texten |
9-31 |
| Abstract. This paper deals with frequency distributions of letters in German. As in other natural languages, letters of the alphabet do not appear equally often. On the contrary, each letter has its own characteristic frequency. Moreover, the frequencies of the letters differ from text to text. The purpose of this paper is to present some further frequency distributions of letters in German texts and text corpora and to show that they all follow the negative hypergeometric distribution. In some well-chosen cases, spaces and punctuation marks are considered, too. | |
| Andersen, Simone | |
|
Word
length balance in texts: |
32-50 |
Abstract. Constancy phenomena in word length distributions of texts are demonstrated. The regularity of proportions is shown by intercorrelation of parts under differing kinds of partitioning. Length homogeneity rΛ as a measure for the stability of the values of the distribution is developed. Balance number B refers to word-chains in line: Every B words the total number of syllables tends to be equal, indicated by decreased variance. |
|
| Mačutek, Ján | |
| Discrete distributions connected by partial summations | 51-55 |
|
Abstract.
In this article it will be shown that (1) usual discrete probability (mass)
distributions can be transformed in (almost) any partial sums distribution,
(2) discrete probability distributions can be presented as partial sums
distributions if an adequate transformations can be found. |
|
| Best, Karl-Heinz | |
| Turzismen im Deutschen | 56-63 |
| Abstract. Many authors examined the influence of loanwords in German (cf. Best 2001; Körner 2004). This above all applies to borrowings from French, English, and Latin, and for some other languages as well (for ex. Greek, Italian, Spanish). But there are many languages like Turkish the influence of which on the German lexicon is nearly unknown. The present paper presents the development of Turkish borrowings in German and demonstrates that this process abides by the logistic law which in linguistics is known as Piotrowski Law. | |
| Kantemir, Sergej; Levickij, Viktor | |
| Die statistische Analyse des semantischen Feldes der Farbbezeichnungen im Deutschen | 64-97 |
|
Abstract.
The
syntagmatic and paradigmatic characteristics of colour terms in German
were investigated. The use of statistical methods enabled by means of
formal criteria to objectively reveal similarities and dissimilarities of
syntagmatic and paradigmatic peculiarities of colour terms. The findings of the research
are: 1.
In modern German the colour characteristics of different things and
phenomena are defined via diverse system of colour terms that is comprised
of a number of frequent groups of words, and where the most frequently
used colour terms such as weiß,
schwarz, rot, blau, grün, grau, braun and
gelb (67,77%) make up the nucleus of the semantic field, the rest of
the words (32,23%) belong to its periphery. 2.
By means of the basic colour terms modern German can structure
colour perception of an individual and “verbalise” the semantic
structure of colour phenomenon in national linguistic
image of the world. |
|
| Ferrer i Cancho, Ramon | |
| Hidden communication aspects in the exponent of Zipf’s law | 98-119 |
| Abstract.
Here we focus on communication systems following Zipf’s law. We study
the relationship between the properties of those communication systems and
the exponent of the law. We describe the properties of communication
systems using quantitative measures of the semantic vagueness and the cost
of word use. We try to reduce the precision and the economy of a
communication system to a function of the exponent of Zipf’s law and
the size of the communication system. Taking the exponent of the frequency
spectrum, we show that semantic precision grows with the exponent whereas
the cost of word use reaches a global minimum between 1.5 and 2 if the
size of the communication system remains constant. We show that the
exponent of Zipf’s law is a key aspect for knowing about the number of
stimuli handled by a communication system and determining which of two
systems is less vague or less expensive. We argue that the ideal exponent
of Zipf’s law should be very slightly above 2. |
|
Glottometrics ist eine unregelmäßig erscheinende Zeitschrift für die quantitative Erforschung von Sprache und Text.
|
Glottometrics is a scientific journal for the quantitative research on language and text published at irregular intervals |
Beiträge in Deutsch oder Englisch sollten an einen der Herausgeber in einem gängigen Textverarbeitssystem (vorrangig WORD) geschickt werden.
|
Contributions in English or German written with a common text processing system (preferably WORD) should be sent to one of the editors |
| Glottometrics kann aus dem Internet heruntergeladen, auf CD-ROM (PDF-Format) oder in Buchform bestellt werden. | Glottometrics can be downloaded from the Internet, obtained on CD-ROM (in PDF) or in form of printed copies |
Herausgeber/Editors:
| G. Altmann | 02351973070-0001@t-online.de |
| K.-H. Best | kbest@gwdg.de |
| P. Grzybek | peter.grzybek@uni-graz.at |
| A. Hardie | a.hardie@lancester.ac.uk |
| L. Hrebicek | hrebicek@orient.cas.cz |
| R. Köhler | koehler@uni-trier.de |
| V. Kromer | kromer@newmail.ru |
| O. Rottmann | otto.rottmann@t-online.de |
| A. Schulz | reuter.schulz@t-online.de |
| G. Wimmer | wimmer@mat.savba.sk |
| A. Ziegler | arneziegler@compuserve.de |
Herunterladen/ Downloading: http://www.ram-verlag.de
ISSN 1617-8351 back