65
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Review Article

The Menzerath-Altmann Law from a Physical Perspective: The Case of Written Chinese Characters

ORCID Icon
Pages 238-259 | Received 07 Mar 2024, Accepted 08 Jun 2024, Published online: 19 Jun 2024

References

  • Altmann, G. (1980). Prolegomena to menzerath’s law. In R. Grotjahn, (Ed.), Glottometrika (pp. 1–10). Bochum: Brockmeyer.
  • Baddeley, A. D. (1983). Working memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 302, 311–324. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1983.0057
  • Buk, S., & Rovenchak, A. (2007). Statistical parameters of ivan franko’s novel perekhresni stežky (the cross-paths). In P. Grzybek & R. Köhler (Eds.), Exact methods in the study of language and text (pp. 39–48). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110894219.39
  • Cai, Q., Brysbaert, M., & Rodriguez-Fornells, A. (2010). SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles. Public Library of Science ONE, 5(6), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010729
  • Chen, H., & Liu, H. (2016). How to measure word length in spoken and written Chinese. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 23(1), 5–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2015.1071147
  • Chen, H., & Liu, H. (2019). A quantitative probe into the hierarchical structure of written Chinese. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Quantitative Syntax (pp. 25–32). https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/w19-7904
  • Chen, H., & Wang, Y. (2023). How does language evolve as a multi-level system? A quantitative exploration of written Chinese. Language Sciences, 98, 101554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101554
  • Cowan, N. (2016). Working memory capacity. Psychology Press.
  • Cramer, I. (2005). The parameters of the Altmann-Menzerath law. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 12(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296170500055301
  • Ellis, N. C., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (2009). Language as a complex adaptive system (Vol. 11). John Wiley & Sons.
  • Eroglu, S. (2013). Menzerath-Altmann law for distinct word distribution analysis in a large text. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 392(12), 2775–2780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2013.02.012
  • Ferrer-I-Cancho, R., & Solé, R. V. (2003). Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(3), 788–791. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0335980100
  • Filipović, L., & Hawkins, J. A. (2019). The complex adaptive system principles model for bilingualism: Language interactions within and across bilingual minds. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(6), 1223–1248. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006918781076
  • Ghosh, S., Shivakumara, P., Roy, P., Pal, U., & Lu, T. (2020). Graphology based handwritten character analysis for human behaviour identification. CAAI Transactions on Intelligence Technology, 5(1), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1049/trit.2019.0051
  • Gibson, E., Futrell, R., Piantadosi, S. T., Dautriche, I., Kyle, M., Bergen, L., & Levy, R. (2019). How efficiency shapes human language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(5), 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.02.003
  • Graces Group, F., Beckner, C., Blythe, R., Christiansen, M. H., Croft, W., Ellis, N. C., Holland, J., Ke, J., Larsen‐Freeman, D., & Schoenemann, T. (2009). Language is a complex adaptive system: Position paper. Language Learning, 59(s1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00533.x
  • Grzybek, P. (1999). Randbemerkungen zur Korrelation von Wort- und Silbenlänge im Kroatischen. In B. Tošović (Ed.), Die grammatischen Korrelationen. GraLiS 1999 (pp. 67–77). Institut für Slawistik der Karl-Franzens-Universität.
  • Harley, T. A. (2013). The psychology of language: From data to theory. In Psychological Bulletin. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0075843
  • Hernández-Fernández, A., Garrido, J. M., Luque, B., & Torre, I. G. (2022). Linguistic laws in Catalan. Quantitative Approaches to Universality and Individuality in Language, 75, 49. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110763560-005
  • Hernández-Fernández, A., Torre, I. G., Garrido, J. M., & Lacasa, L. (2019). Linguistic laws in speech: The case of Catalan and Spanish. Entropy, 21(12), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/e21121153
  • Hou, R., Huang, C.-R., Ahrens, K., & Lee, Y. S. (2020). Linguistic characteristics of Chinese register based on the Menzerath—Altmann law and text clustering. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 35(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqz005
  • Hou, R., Huang, C. R., Do, H. S., & Liu, H. (2017). A study on correlation between Chinese sentence and constituting clauses based on the menzerath-Altmann Law. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 24(4), 350–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2017.1314411
  • Jin, T., Lu, X., & Ni, J. (2020). Syntactic complexity in adapted teaching materials: Differences among grade levels and implications for benchmarking. The Modern Language Journal, 104(1), 192–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12622
  • Kanwal, J., Smith, K., Culbertson, J., & Kirby, S. (2017). Zipf’s law of abbreviation and the principle of least effort: Language users optimise a miniature lexicon for efficient communication. Cognition, 165, 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.05.001
  • Kelih, E. (2010). Parameter interpretation of the Menzerath law: Evidence from Serbian. In P. Grzybek, E. Kelih, & J. Mačutek (Eds.), Text and Language: Structures, Functions, Interrelations, Quantitative Perspectives (pp. 71–79). RAM-Verlag.
  • Köhler, R. (2005). Synergetic linguistics. In R. Köhler, G. Altmann, & R. G. Piotrowski (Eds.), Quantitative linguistics: An international handbook (pp. 760–774). Walter de Gruyter.
  • Kretzschmar, W. A. (2015). Language and complex systems. Cambridge University Press.
  • Linders, G. M., & Louwerse, M. M. (2023). Zipf’s law revisited: Spoken dialog, linguistic units, parameters, and the principle of least effort. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30(1), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02142-9
  • Liu, H. (2013). Language is more a human-driven system than a semiotic system: Comment on“Modelling language evolution: Examples and predictions” by Tao Gong, Shuai Lan, Menghan Zhang. Physics of Life Reviews, 11(2), 309–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2013.12.008
  • Liu, H. (2018). Language as a human-driven complex adaptive system. Physics of Life Reviews, 26(27), 149–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2018.06.006
  • Mačutek, J., Chromý, J., & Koščová, M. (2019). Menzerath-Altmann law and prothetic/v/in spoken Czech. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 26(1), 66–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2018.1424493
  • Massip-Bonet, À. (2013). Language as a complex adaptive system: Towards an integrative linguistics. In A. Bastardas-Boada & À. Massip-Bonet (Eds.), Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society (pp. 35–60). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  • Matlach, V., Dostál, D., & Novotný, M. (2022). Secondary structures of proteins follow menzerath–Altmann law. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(3), 1569. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23031569
  • Menzerath, P. (1928). Über einige phonetische Probleme. In P. Rivet (Ed.), Actes du premier Congres international de linguistes (pp. 104–105). Sijthoff.
  • Menzerath, P. (1954). Die Architektonik des deutschen Wortschatzes. Dümmler.
  • Menzerath, P., & de Oleza, J. M. (1928). Spanische Lautdauer: Eine Experimentelle Untersuchung. Walter de Gruyter.
  • Mikros, G., & Milička, J. (2014). Distribution of the Menzerath’s law on the syllable level in Greek texts. In G. Altmann, R. Čech, J. Mačutek, & L. Uhlířová (Eds.), Empirical approaches to text and language analysis (pp.181–189). Lüdenscheid: RAM–Verlag.
  • Motalová, T., Mačutek, J., & Čech, R. (2023). Word length in Chinese: The Menzerath-Altmann Law is valid after all. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 30(3–4), 304–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2023.2259937
  • Prün, C. (1994). Validity of Menzerath‐Altmann’s law: Graphic representation of language, information processing systems and synergetic linguistics. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 1(2), 148–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296179408590009
  • Quatieri, T. (2002). Discrete-time speech signal processing: Principles and practice. Prentice Hall.
  • Reunanen, N., Räty, T., Jokinen, J. J., Hoyt, T., & Culler, D. (2020). Unsupervised online detection and prediction of outliers in streams of sensor data. International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 9(3), 285–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-019-00191-3
  • Rovenchak, A. (2015). Quantitative studies in the porpus of nko periodicals. In A. Tuzzi, M. Benešová, & J. Mačutek (Eds.), Recent contributions to quantitative linguistics (pp. 125–138). de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110420296
  • Saussure, F. D. (2011). Course in General Linguistics. Columbia University Press.
  • Ščigulinská, J., & Schusterová, D. (2014). An application of the Menzerath–Altmann law to contemporary spoken Chinese. Palacký University Olomouc.
  • Semple, S., Ferrer-I-Cancho, R., & Gustison, M. L. (2022). Linguistic laws in biology. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 37(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.08.012
  • Shiffler, R. E. (1988). Maximum Z scores and outliers. The American Statistician, 42(1), 79–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1988.10475530
  • Tanaka-Ishii, K. (2021). Menzerath’s law in the syntax of languages compared with random sentences. Entropy, 23(6), 661. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23060661
  • Torre, I. G., Dębowski, Ł., Hernández-Fernández, A., & Amancio, D. R. (2021). Can Menzerath’s law be a criterion of complexity in communication? Public Library of Science ONE, 16(8), e0256133. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256133
  • Torre, I. G., Luque, B., Lacasa, L., Kello, C. T., & Hernández-Fernández, A. (2019). On the physical origin of linguistic laws and lognormality in speech. Royal Society Open Science, 6(8), 191023. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191023
  • Tsai, C. H., Kuo, C. H., Horng, W. B., & Chen, C. W. (2012). Effects on learning logographic character formation in computer-assisted handwriting instruction. Language Learning and Technology, 16(1), 110–130.
  • Tsizhmovska, N. L., & Martyushev, L. M. (2021). Principle of least effort and sentence length in public speaking. Entropy, 23(8), 1023. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23081023
  • Vochala, J. (1986). Chinese writing system: Minimal graphic units. Univerzita Karlova.
  • Wang, R., Huang, S., Zhou, Y., & Cai, Z. G. (2020). Chinese character handwriting: A large-scale behavioral study and a database. Behavior Research Methods, 52(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01206-4
  • Watt, W. C. (1994). Writing systems and cognition: Perspectives from psychology, physiology, linguistics, and semiotics (Vol. 6). Springer Science & Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8285-8
  • Xu, L., & He, L. (2020). Is the menzerath-Altmann law specific to certain languages in certain registers? Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 27(3), 187–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2018.1532158
  • Yu, S., Xu, C., & Liu, H. (2018). Zipf’s law in 50 languages: Its structural pattern, linguistic interpretation, and cognitive motivation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.01855.
  • Zipf, G. K. (1935). The psycho-biology of language. Houghton Mifflin.
  • Zipf, G. K. (1949). Human behavior and the principle of least effort: An introduction to human ecology. Addison-Wesley.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.