Dependence of exponents on text length versus finite-size scaling for word-frequency distributions
Some authors have recently argued that a finite-size scaling law for the text-length dependence of word-frequency distributions cannot be conceptually valid. Here we give solid quantitative evidence for the validity of this scaling law, using both careful statistical tests and analytical arguments b...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repositorio: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:2072/377767 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/2072/377767 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Matemàtiques 51 |
| Sumario: | Some authors have recently argued that a finite-size scaling law for the text-length dependence of word-frequency distributions cannot be conceptually valid. Here we give solid quantitative evidence for the validity of this scaling law, using both careful statistical tests and analytical arguments based on the generalized central-limit theorem applied to the moments of the distribution (and obtaining a novel derivation of Heaps'\'' law as a by-product). We also find that the picture of word-frequency distributions with power-law exponents that decrease with text length [X. Yan and P. Minnhagen, Physica A 444, 828 (2016)] does not stand with rigorous statistical analysis. Instead, we show that the distributions are perfectly described by power-law tails with stable exponents, whose values are close to 2, in agreement with the classical Zipf'\''s law. Some misconceptions about scaling are also clarified. |
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