Linguistic complexity in scientific writing: A large-scale diachronic study from 1821 to 1920

Gui Wang, Hui Wang, Xinyi Sun, Nan Wang and Li Wang ()
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Gui Wang: Shanghai Normal University
Hui Wang: Shanghai Normal University
Xinyi Sun: Shanghai Normal University
Nan Wang: Beijing Foreign Studies University
Li Wang: Shanghai Normal University

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 1, No 19, 460 pages

Abstract: Abstract This study intends to describe the diachronic changes of linguistic complexity (i.e., overall, morphological, and syntactic complexity) in scientific writing based on Kolmogorov complexity, an information-theoretic approach. We have chosen the entire data (i.e., all the 24 text types including articles, letters, news, etc.) and two individual registers (i.e., the full texts and abstracts of articles) of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, the world’s oldest scientific writing journal. The Mann–Kendall trend tests were used to capture diachronic changes in linguistic complexity at three complexity levels, and the Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to investigate the relationships between the three complexity metrics. Results showed that the overall and morphological complexity of both the entire data and full texts increased from 1821 to 1920, indicating a massive lexical expansion during this 100-year period, as evidenced by more and more word form variants in scientific writing. In contrast, the syntactic complexity of the entire data and full texts declined, suggesting a gradual shift towards grammatical simplification in the evolution of scientific writing, particularly in word order rules and syntactic patterns. A trade-off effect has also been found between syntactic and morphological complexity in the entire data. In addition, concerning abstracts, the overall and morphological complexity decreased while the syntactic complexity increased. Drawing from these results, researchers can better understand the changing linguistic complexity styles in scientific writing, thus making adjustments in their writing accordingly to garner greater attention in academia.

Keywords: Linguistic complexity; Scientific writing; Kolmogorov; Register variations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04550-z

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