Patterns in syntactic dependency networks

Ramon Ferrer i Cancho, Ricard V. Solé, and Reinhard Köhler
Phys. Rev. E 69, 051915 – Published 26 May 2004

Abstract

Many languages are spoken on Earth. Despite their diversity, many robust language universals are known to exist. All languages share syntax, i.e., the ability of combining words for forming sentences. The origin of such traits is an issue of open debate. By using recent developments from the statistical physics of complex networks, we show that different syntactic dependency networks (from Czech, German, and Romanian) share many nontrivial statistical patterns such as the small world phenomenon, scaling in the distribution of degrees, and disassortative mixing. Such previously unreported features of syntax organization are not a trivial consequence of the structure of sentences, but an emergent trait at the global scale.

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  • Received 19 June 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.69.051915

©2004 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Ramon Ferrer i Cancho1,*, Ricard V. Solé1,2, and Reinhard Köhler3

  • 1ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Dr. Aiguader 80, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
  • 2Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA
  • 3Universität Trier, FB2∕LDV, D-54268 Trier, Germany

  • *Corresponding author. Email address: rferrer@imim.es

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Vol. 69, Iss. 5 — May 2004

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