The Advanced Theory of Language as Choice and Chance

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 1-13

3. Language as Chance I — Statistical Linguistics

   1. Stability of Linguistic Distributions

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 14-44

   2. Explanation of Stability of Linguistic Distributions

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 44-60

   3. Application of the Theory of Stability of Alphabetic Distributions to a Problem of Language Mixture

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 60-69

4. Language as Choice I — Stylostatistics

   1. Style as a Statistical Concept

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 70-91

   2. Word Count Mathematics

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 91-147

   3. Style Relationships — Bi-Variate Stylostatistics

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 147-163

   4. A Guide to Stylo-statistical Investigations

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 163-175

5. Language as Chance II — Optimal Systems of Language Structure

   1. Combinatorics on the Phonemic (Alphabetic) Level

      1. The Combinatorial Structure of Words

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 176-198

      2. Optimality of the word-length distribution

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 198-206

      3. Combinatorics applied to Problems of Classical Poetry

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 206-213

   2. Combinatorics on the Lexicon Level

      1. Random Partitioning of Vocabulary — Vocabulary Connectivity

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 214-219

      2. The Generalised Random Partitioning Function and Stylostatistics

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 219-249

      3. The “New Statistics” on the Vocabulary Level

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 249-259

   3. Information Theory

      1. Principles of Information Theory

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 259-261

      2. Information-Theoretical Analysis as a Tool of Linguistic Research

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 282-304

      3. Language Translations as Bi-Variate Distributions of Coding Symbols

         • Gustav Herdan

         Pages 304-327

6. Language as Choice II — Linguistic Duality

   1. The Four-fold Root of Linguistic Duality

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 328-341

   2. Duality as Correcting Factor — Inadequacy of Truly Semiologic Codes

      • Gustav Herdan

      Pages 341-347

In trying to give an account of the statistical properties of language, one is faced with the problem of having to find the common thread which would show the many and multifarious forms of language statistic- embodied in scattered papers written by linguists, philosophers, mathe­ maticians, engineers, each using his own professional idiom - as belong­ ing to one great whole: quantitative linguistics. This means that the investigator has to find the system of this branch of science which would enable him to arrange the vast material in an orderly fashion, and present it as an organic whole. Such a system is conceived in this book, as comprising the following disciplines as the four main branches of literary statistics: Statistical Linguistics, Stylostatistics, Optimal Systems of Language Structure, and Linguistic Duality (Parts I-IV). The Introduction is meant to define the position of the book with regard to both, linguistics and statistics.

• Kommunikation
• Sprache
• Sprachsoziologie
• Theory of Language
• science
• statistics

• University of Bristol, USA

  Gustav Herdan

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