Topology of the conceptual network of language

被引:109
作者
Motter, AE [1 ]
de Moura, APS
Lai, YC
Dasgupta, P
机构
[1] Arizona State Univ, Ctr syst Sci & Engn Res, Dept Math, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA
[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Fis, BR-05315970 Sao Paulo, Brazil
[3] Arizona State Univ, Dept Elect Engn, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA
[4] Arizona State Univ, Dept Phys, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA
[5] Arizona State Univ, Dept Comp Sci & Engn, Tempe, AZ 85287 USA
来源
PHYSICAL REVIEW E | 2002年 / 65卷 / 06期
关键词
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevE.65.065102
中图分类号
O35 [流体力学]; O53 [等离子体物理学];
学科分类号
070204 ; 080103 ; 080704 ;
摘要
We define two words in a language to be connected if they express similar concepts. The network of connections among the many thousands of words that make up a language is important not only for the study of the structure and evolution of languages, but also for cognitive science. We study this issue quantitatively, by mapping out the conceptual network of the English language, with the connections being defined by the entries in a Thesaurus dictionary. We find that this network presents a small-world structure, with an amazingly small average shortest path, and appears to exhibit an asymptotic scale-free feature with algebraic connectivity distribution.
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页数:4
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