Title
On the von Neumann entropy of language networks: Applications to cross-linguistic comparisons
Date Issued
01 December 2021
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
University of Santiago of Chile
Publisher(s)
IOP Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Words are not isolated entities within a language. In this paper, we measure the number of choices transmitted in natural language by means of the von Neumann entropy of language networks. This quantity, introduced in Quantum Information accounts, provides a detailed characterization of network complexities. The simulations are based on a large parallel corpus of 362 languages across 55 linguistic families (focusing on the sub-sample of 85 languages from the Americas). With this, we constructed language networks as a simple way to describe word connectivity patterns for each language. We studied several aspects of the von Neumann entropy of language networks. First, we discovered large groups of languages with low average degree and high von Neumann entropy. The results suggested also that large von Neumann entropy is associated with word entropy (as a proxy for morphological complexity), and is inversely related to degree regularity. This means that there are pressures at play that keep a balance between word morphological complexity and patterns of connections between words. We suggested also a strong influence of functional words on low von Neumann entropy languages. Our approach is thus a simple network-based contribution to establish cross-linguistic language comparisons from textual data.
Volume
136
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Informática y Ciencias de la Información
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85127385120
Source
EPL
Resource of which it is part
EPL
ISSN of the container
02955075
Sponsor(s)
JV thanks Universidad de Santiago for financial support through Postdoctoral project POSTDOC_DICYT, Code 062117LV_POSTDOC, Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus