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Found 51 papers, 4 papers with code
Swap distance minimization beyond entropy minimization in word order variation
We investigate if the frequency of the $n!$ possible orders is constrained by two principles.
The optimal placement of the head in the noun phrase. The case of demonstrative, numeral, adjective and noun
The principle of syntactic dependency distance minimization is in conflict with the principle of surprisal minimization (or predictability maximization) in single head syntactic dependency structures: while the former predicts that the head should be placed at the center of the linear arrangement, the latter predicts that the head should be placed at one of the ends (either first or last).
Swap distance minimization in SOV languages. Cognitive and mathematical foundations
We test the prediction in three flexible order SOV languages: Korean (Koreanic), Malayalam (Dravidian), and Sinhalese (Indo-European).
Linguistic laws in biology
Linguistic laws, the common statistical patterns of human language, have been investigated by quantitative linguists for nearly a century.
Direct and indirect evidence of compression of word lengths. Zipf's law of abbreviation revisited
Zipf's law of abbreviation, the tendency of more frequent words to be shorter, is one of the most solid candidates for a linguistic universal, in the sense that it has the potential for being exceptionless or with a number of exceptions that is vanishingly small compared to the number of languages on Earth.
The distribution of syntactic dependency distances
The syntactic structure of a sentence can be represented as a graph where vertices are words and edges indicate syntactic dependencies between them.
The optimality of word lengths. Theoretical foundations and an empirical study
Zipf's law of abbreviation, namely the tendency of more frequent words to be shorter, has been viewed as a manifestation of compression, i. e. the minimization of the length of forms -- a universal principle of natural communication.
The expected sum of edge lengths in planar linearizations of trees. Theory and applications
In the domain of applications, we derive a $O(n)$-time algorithm to calculate the expected value of the sum of edge lengths.
The Maximum Linear Arrangement Problem for trees under projectivity and planarity
In the projective variant for rooted trees, arrangements have to be planar and the root of the tree cannot be covered by any edge.
The Linear Arrangement Library. A new tool for research on syntactic dependency structures
One of the main concerns in this field is the statistical patterns of syntactic dependency structures.
Dependency distance minimization predicts compression
Dependency distance minimization (DDm) is a well-established principle of word order.
Linear-time calculation of the expected sum of edge lengths in random projective linearizations of trees
Thus far, the expectation of the sum of dependency distances in random projective shufflings of a sentence has been estimated approximately with a Monte Carlo procedure whose cost is of the order of $Rn$, where $n$ is the number of words of the sentence and $R$ is the number of samples; it is well known that the larger $R$, the lower the error of the estimation but the larger the time cost.
The advent and fall of a vocabulary learning bias from communicative efficiency
However, the information theoretic model employed in that research neither explains the weakening of that vocabulary learning bias in older children or polylinguals nor reproduces Zipf's meaning-frequency law, namely the non-linear relationship between the number of meanings of a word and its frequency.
Minimum projective linearizations of trees in linear time
Gildea and Temperley (GT) sketched an algorithm for projective arrangements which they claimed runs in $O(n)$ but did not provide any justification of its cost.
The optimality of syntactic dependency distances
Here we recast the problem of the optimality of the word order of a sentence as an optimization problem on a spatial network where the vertices are words, arcs indicate syntactic dependencies and the space is defined by the linear order of the words in the sentence.
Bounds of the sum of edge lengths in linear arrangements of trees
A fundamental problem in network science is the normalization of the topological or physical distance between vertices, that requires understanding the range of variation of the unnormalized distances.
Fast calculation of the variance of edge crossings in random arrangements
The crossing number of a graph $G$, $\mathrm{cr}(G)$, is the minimum number of edge crossings arising when drawing a graph on a certain surface.
Computation Discrete Mathematics Data Structures and Algorithms Combinatorics
Memory limitations are hidden in grammar
The ability to produce and understand an unlimited number of different sentences is a hallmark of human language.
Anti dependency distance minimization in short sequences. A graph theoretic approach
Dependency distance minimization (DDm) is a word order principle favouring the placement of syntactically related words close to each other in sentences.
Optimal coding and the origins of Zipfian laws
Here we consider the problem of optimal coding -- under an arbitrary coding scheme -- and show that it predicts Zipf's law of abbreviation, namely a tendency in natural languages for more frequent words to be shorter.
Polysemy and brevity versus frequency in language
The pioneering research of G. K. Zipf on the relationship between word frequency and other word features led to the formulation of various linguistic laws.
The origins of Zipf's meaning-frequency law
In his pioneering research, G. K. Zipf observed that more frequent words tend to have more meanings, and showed that the number of meanings of a word grows as the square root of its frequency.
A dependency look at the reality of constituency
A comment on "Neurophysiological dynamics of phrase-structure building during sentence processing" by Nelson et al (2017), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 114(18), E3669-E3678.
Fast calculation of entropy with Zhang's estimator
Entropy is a fundamental property of a repertoire.
Towards a theory of word order. Comment on "Dependency distance: a new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al
Comment on "Dependency distance: a new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al
The placement of the head that maximizes predictability. An information theoretic approach
The minimization of the length of syntactic dependencies is a well-established principle of word order and the basis of a mathematical theory of word order.
Are crossing dependencies really scarce?
It has been claimed recurrently that the number of edge crossings in real sentences is small.
The polysemy of the words that children learn over time
However, such preference could be a side-effect of another bias: the preference of children for nouns in combination with the lower polysemy of nouns with respect to other part-of-speech categories.
The infochemical core
Surprisingly, a double Zipf (a Zipf distribution with two regimes with a different exponent each) is the model yielding the best fit although it is the function with the largest number of parameters.
Compression and the origins of Zipf's law for word frequencies
Here we sketch a new derivation of Zipf's law for word frequencies based on optimal coding.
The scarcity of crossing dependencies: a direct outcome of a specific constraint?
The structure of a sentence can be represented as a network where vertices are words and edges indicate syntactic dependencies.
Kauffman's adjacent possible in word order evolution
Word order evolution has been hypothesized to be constrained by a word order permutation ring: transitions involving orders that are closer in the permutation ring are more likely.
Liberating language research from dogmas of the 20th century
A commentary on the article "Large-scale evidence of dependency length minimization in 37 languages" by Futrell, Mahowald & Gibson (PNAS 2015 112 (33) 10336-10341).
A commentary on "The now-or-never bottleneck: a fundamental constraint on language", by Christiansen and Chater (2016)
In a recent article, Christiansen and Chater (2016) present a fundamental constraint on language, i. e. a now-or-never bottleneck that arises from our fleeting memory, and explore its implications, e. g., chunk-and-pass processing, outlining a framework that promises to unify different areas of research.
Crossings as a side effect of dependency lengths
The syntactic structure of sentences exhibits a striking regularity: dependencies tend to not cross when drawn above the sentence.
Reply to the commentary "Be careful when assuming the obvious", by P. Alday
Here we respond to some comments by Alday concerning headedness in linguistic theory and the validity of the assumptions of a mathematical model for word order.
Optimization models of natural communication
A family of information theoretic models of communication was introduced more than a decade ago to explain the origins of Zipf's law for word frequencies.
Non-crossing dependencies: least effort, not grammar
The use of null hypotheses (in a statistical sense) is common in hard sciences but not in theoretical linguistics.
A stronger null hypothesis for crossing dependencies
That null hypothesis takes into account the length of the pair of edges that may cross and predicts the relative number of crossings in random trees with a small error, suggesting that a ban of crossings or a principle of minimization of crossings are not needed in general to explain the origins of non-crossing dependencies.
The meaning-frequency law in Zipfian optimization models of communication
According to Zipf's meaning-frequency law, words that are more frequent tend to have more meanings.
Beyond description. Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by Cong & Liu
Comment on "Approaching human language with complex networks" by Cong & Liu
Zipf's law for word frequencies: word forms versus lemmas in long texts
In all cases Zipf's law is fulfilled, in the sense that a power-law distribution of word or lemma frequencies is valid for several orders of magnitude.
The optimality of attaching unlinked labels to unlinked meanings
First, it is shown that this bias is a particular case of the maximization of mutual information between words and meanings.
Why SOV might be initially preferred and then lost or recovered? A theoretical framework
Little is known about why SOV order is initially preferred and then discarded or recovered.
The placement of the head that minimizes online memory: a complex systems approach
However, how that length is translated into cognitive cost is not known.
Random crossings in dependency trees
We show that this number depends only on the number of vertices of the dependency tree (the sentence length) and the second moment about zero of vertex degrees.
Constant conditional entropy and related hypotheses
We show that constant entropy rate (CER) and two interpretations for uniform information density (UID), full UID and strong UID, are inconsistent with these laws.
Hubiness, length, crossings and their relationships in dependency trees
Hubiness (the variance of degrees) plays a central role: the mean dependency length is bounded below by hubiness while the number of crossings is bounded above by hubiness.
The risks of mixing dependency lengths from sequences of different length
However, the empirical distribution of dependency lengths of sentences of the same length differs from that of sentences of varying length and the distribution of dependency lengths depends on sentence length for real sentences and also under the null hypothesis that dependencies connect vertices located in random positions of the sequence.
