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Optimal Scheduling of the Leaves of a Tree and the SVO Frequencies of Languages

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Learning and Intelligent Optimization (LION 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13621))

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Abstract

We define and study algorithmically a novel optimization problem related to the sequential scheduling of the leaves of a binary tree in a given order, and its generalization in which the optimum order is sought. We assume that the scheduling process starts at the root of the tree and continues breadth-first in parallel, albeit with possible intervening lock and unlock steps, which define the scheduling cost. The motivation for this problem comes from modeling language generation in the brain. We show that optimality considerations in this problem provide a new explanation for an intriguing phenomenon in linguistics, namely that certain ways of ordering the subject, verb, and object in a sentence are far more common in world languages than others.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Christos H. Papadimitriou & Denis Turcu

Authors
  1. Christos H. Papadimitriou
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  2. Denis Turcu
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Correspondence to Denis Turcu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. SBA Research, Vienna, Austria

    Dimitris E. Simos

  2. Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), Moscow, Russia

    Varvara A. Rasskazova

  3. Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Francesco Archetti

  4. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Ilias S. Kotsireas

  5. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Panos M. Pardalos

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Papadimitriou, C.H., Turcu, D. (2022). Optimal Scheduling of the Leaves of a Tree and the SVO Frequencies of Languages. In: Simos, D.E., Rasskazova, V.A., Archetti, F., Kotsireas, I.S., Pardalos, P.M. (eds) Learning and Intelligent Optimization. LION 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13621. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24866-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24866-5_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-24865-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-24866-5

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