relation: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1253/
title: Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death
creator: Petersen, Alexander M.
creator: Tenenbaum, Joel
creator: Havlin, Shlomo
creator: Stanley, H. Eugene
subject: D History (General)
subject: HB Economic Theory
subject: HM Sociology
subject: P Philology. Linguistics
subject: QC Physics
description: We analyze the dynamic properties of 107 words recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew over the period 1800–2008 in order to gain insight into the coevolution of language and culture. We report language independent patterns useful as benchmarks for theoretical models of language evolution. A significantly decreasing (increasing) trend in the birth (death) rate of words indicates a recent shift in the selection laws governing word use. For new words, we observe a peak in the growth-rate fluctuations around 40 years after introduction, consistent with the typical entry time into standard dictionaries and the human generational  timescale. Pronounced changes in the dynamics of language during periods of war shows that word correlations, occurring across time and between words, are largely influenced by coevolutionary social,technological, and political factors. We quantify cultural memory by analyzing the long-term correlations in the use of individual words using detrended fluctuation analysis.
publisher: Nature Publishing Group
date: 2012-03-15
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: en
rights: cc_by_nc_nd
identifier: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1253/1/WordGrowthDynamics.pdf
format: application/pdf
language: en
identifier: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1253/7/WordBirthWordDeath_SciReports.pdf
identifier:   Petersen, Alexander M. and Tenenbaum, Joel and Havlin, Shlomo and Stanley, H. Eugene  Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death.  (Nature) Scientific Reports, 2 (313).  pp. 1-9.  ISSN 2045-2322      (2012)  
relation: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120315/srep00313/full/srep00313.html
relation: 10.1038/srep00313