Language Complexity Trade-Offs Revisited

German Coloma ()

No 721, CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. from Universidad del CEMA

Abstract: In this paper we revisit the results that originally appeared in Coloma (2015) and Coloma (2017), using a newly-assembled database of 50 languages for which we have the same text (which is the fable known as “The North Wind and the Sun”). Most conclusions of the original papers remain the same, especially the ones that signal the existence of language complexity trade-offs. This is particularly clear when we look at partial correlation coefficients between three linguistic ratios (phonemes per syllable, syllables per word, and words per clause), when we use simultaneous-equation regression methods, and when we estimate different versions of Menzerath law that relate phonemes per word and words per clause.

Keywords: complexity trade-off; partial correlation; linguistic ratios; simultaneous-equation regression; Menzerath law; The North Wind and the Sun. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2020-04
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cem:doctra:721

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