Readers 读者
Empirical characterization of modern Chinese as a multi-level system from the complex network approach
现代汉语多层级复杂网络的实证研究
Haitao Liu 刘海涛; Jin Cong 丛进
Abstract 摘要
The conception of language as a multi-level system is widely accepted in modern linguistics. However, due to the absence of operational methodology, there has been no empirical characterization of any language as a multi-level system in the current body of linguistic research. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining modern Chinese as a multi-level system from the complex network approach. Based on the same body of corpus data, four levels as language sub-systems along the meaning-form dimension of the language are modeled as linguistic networks. On the basis of topological analysis of the four linguistic networks, the organizational patterns of the four language sub-systems are described and compared quantitatively and the results are interpreted from an interdisciplinary perspective. To varying degrees, the four network models exhibit a series of non-trivial statistical patterns, which shed light on different aspects of the organization of the four sub-systems. The similarities and differences of the four sub-systems in organizational patterns reflect the relationships between them. In more than one way, the results of this study point to the close connection between relevant properties of the language and human cognition, which facilitates linguistic performance of different types.
Subject Keywords 关键词
Multi-level system 多层级系统 Modern Chinese 现代汉语 Complex network 复杂网络 Linguistic network 语言网络 Organizational pattern 组织方式 Human cognition 人类认知