Abstract
For nearly hundred years, researchers have noticed how language ubiquitously follows certain mathematical properties. These properties differ from linguistic universals that contribute to describing the variation of human languages. Rather, they are statistical: they can only be identified by examining a huge number of usages, and none of us is conscious of them when we use language.
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Change history
25 February 2023
Chapter 1
The original version of this chapter was published with the wrong text “de Saussure (1916),” on page 8, line 3. Now, the correct text “de Saussure (1911),” has been updated in the chapter.
References
The original version of this chapter was published without updating the reference “de Saussure, Ferdinand” on page 225. Now, the correct reference has been updated in the chapter.
Notes
- 1.
Mallarmé wrote a composition entitled Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance) (Mallarmé, 1897).
- 2.
In this book, the term computational linguistics stands for both natural language processing and computational linguistics, following convention.
References
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Kretzschmar Jr., William A. (2015) Language and Complex Systems. Cambridge University Press.
Mallarmé, Stéphane (1897). Un Coup de Dés and Other Poems. Poetry In Translation. Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard, Translation by A. S. Kline.
Thom, René (1974). Modèles mathématiques de la morphogenèse: recueil de textes sur la theorie des catastrophes et ses applications. Paris Union générale d’éditions. “Mathematical Models of Morphogenesis” by Brookes, W.M. and Rand, D. published from Ellis Horwood limited.
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Zipf, George K. (1949). Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort : An Introduction to Human Ecology. Addison-Wesley Press.
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Tanaka-Ishii, K. (2021). Introduction. In: Statistical Universals of Language. Mathematics in Mind. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59377-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59377-3_1
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