Patterns in the English language: phonological networks, percolation and assembly models

DOI10.1088/1742-5468/2015/05/P05006MaRDI QIDQ3302233zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Massimo Stella, Markus Brede

Publication date 11 August 2020

Published in Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.4445

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Natural language processing (68T50)

Abstract: In this paper we provide a quantitative framework for the study of phonological networks (PNs) for the English language by carrying out principled comparisons to null models, either based on site percolation, randomization techniques, or network growth models. In contrast to previous work, we mainly focus on null models that reproduce lower order characteristics of the empirical data. We find that artificial networks matching connectivity properties of the English PN are exceedingly rare: this leads to the hypothesis that the word repertoire might have been assembled over time by preferentially introducing new words which are small modifications of old words. Our null models are able to explain the "power-law-like" part of the degree distributions and generally retrieve qualitative features of the PN such as high clustering, high assortativity coefficient, and small-world characteristics. However, the detailed comparison to expectations from null models also points out significant differences, suggesting the presence of additional constraints in word assembly. Key constraints we identify are the avoidance of large degrees, the avoidance of triadic closure, and the avoidance of large non-percolating clusters.

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Cites work

• Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks
• Least effort and the origins of scaling in human language
• Networks. An introduction.
• The Structure and Function of Complex Networks

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