[内容简介]

This is the first book to bring together the fields of theoretical and empirical studies in syntax on the one hand and the methodology of quantitative linguistics on the other hand. An introduction into the aims and methods of the quantitative approach to linguistics in general and to syntax in particular prepares the reader for the following chapters, which inform about measurement and data acquisition methods and the most common mathematical models for the analysis of syntactic and syntagmatic material. Various examples illustrate how these models are applied and show the corresponding results.

[目录]

Preface vii

1 Introduction 1

2 The quantitative analysis of language and text 9

2.1 The objective of quantitative linguistics 9

2.2 Quantitative linguistics as a scientific discipline 12

2.3 Foundations of quantitative linguistics 13

2.3.1 Epistemological aspects 14

2.3.2 Heuristic benefits 15

2.3.3 Methodological grounds 16

2.4 Theory, laws, and explanation 19

2.5 Conclusion 24

3 Empirical analysis and mathematical modelling 27

3.1 Syntactic units and properties 27

3.2 Quantitation of syntactic concepts and measurement 29

3.3 The acquisition of data from linguistic corpora 31

3.3.1 Tagged text 32

3.3.2 Tree banks 33

3.3.3 Column structure 34

3.3.4 Feature-value pairs 37

3.3.5 Others 40

3.4 Syntactic phenomena and mathematical models 42

3.4.1 Sentence length 42

3.4.2 Probabilistic grammars and probabilistic parsing 44

3.4.3 Markov chains 45

3.4.4 Word classes 46

3.4.5 Frequency spectrum and rank-frequency distribution 57

3.4.6 Frumkina's law on the syntactic level 60

3.4.7 Type Token Ratio 73

3.4.8 Information content 84

3.4.9 Dependency grammar and valency 92

3.4.10 Motifs 114

3.4.11 Gödel Numbering 126

4 Hypotheses, laws, and theory 137

4.1 Towards a theory of syntax 137

4.1.1 Yngve's depth hypothesis 138

4.1.2 Constituent order 141

4.1.3 The Menzerath-Altmann law 147

4.1.4 Distributions of syntactic properties 150

4.2 Structure, function, and processes 169

4.2.1 The synergetic approach to linguistics 169

4.2.2 Language Evolution 173

4.2.3 The logics of explanation 174

4.2.4 Modelling technique 177

4.2.5 Notation 180

4.2.6 Synergetic modelling in linguistics 183

4.2.7 Synergetic modelling in syntax 186

4.3 Perspectives 202

References 205

Subject index 217

Author index 223