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Application of Zipf's Laws in Spanish texts

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2012

Abstract

Zipf's Laws are rules that describe the distribution of words in the text by their frequency, the number of different meanings and other features. Its author, Harvard professor George Kingsley Zipf (1902-1950), while studying natural languages mentioned the so-called Principle of least effort, which means that the language is focused on the economy and clarity.

The principle has an impact on how the speaker unconsciously choose the terms by which he expresses his ideas (for example, the mostly used words are usually the shortest and with multiple meanings, etc.). Zipf's Laws are valid in any natural language and even in other natural systems; however, we must take into account the individual features of each language.

In Spanish texts, for example, is necessary to deal with a higher frequency of determinants and prepositions. These and other peculiarities of its implementation are discussed in this paper.