Euclidean distance between syntactically linked words

We study the Euclidean distance between syntactically linked words in sentences. The average distance is significantly small and is a very slowly growing function of sentence length. We consider two nonexcluding hypotheses: (a) the average distance is minimized and (b) the average distance is constr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Ferrer Cancho, Ramon|||0000-0002-7820-923X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2004
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/175762
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/175762
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.056135
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Computational linguistics
Average distance
Nonexcluding hypotheses
Sentence length
Syntactically linked words
Euclidean distance
Lingüística computacional
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial::Llenguatge natural
Descripción
Sumario:We study the Euclidean distance between syntactically linked words in sentences. The average distance is significantly small and is a very slowly growing function of sentence length. We consider two nonexcluding hypotheses: (a) the average distance is minimized and (b) the average distance is constrained. Support for (a) comes from the significantly small average distance real sentences achieve. The strength of the minimization hypothesis decreases with the length of the sentence. Support for (b) comes from the very slow growth of the average distance versus sentence length. Furthermore, (b) predicts, under ideal conditions, an exponential distribution of the distance between linked words, a trend that can be identified in real sentences.