%0 Journal Article
%T Comparison of Word Length Distributions in Spoken and Written Chinese
%A Heng Chen
%J Open Access Library Journal
%V 5
%N 6
%P 1-11
%@ 2333-9721
%D 2018
%I Open Access Library
%R 10.4236/oalib.1104660
%X <div style="text-align:justify;">
	<span style="line-height:1.5;">In this study we apply Zipf-Alecseev¡¯s function to
word length distributions of Chinese prose and dialogue texts. Since there are
two potential measurement units of Chinese word length, we applied
Zipf-Alecseev¡¯s function to both of them.
The results show that all the word length distributions fit Zipf-Alecseev¡¯s
function, no matter the word length is measured in characters or
components. The parameters </span><i style="line-height:1.5;">a</i><span style="line-height:1.5;"> an</span><span style="line-height:1.5;">d </span><i style="line-height:1.5;">b</i><span style="line-height:1.5;"> in Zipf-Alecseev¡¯s function </span><i style="line-height:1.5;">y</i><i style="line-height:1.5;"> </i><i style="line-height:1.5;">=</i><i style="line-height:1.5;"> </i><i style="line-height:1.5;">cx<sup>a</sup></i><sup> <i>b</i>ln(<i>x</i>)</sup><span style="line-height:1.5;"> show
no difference in different text styles (which are prose and dialogue in our
case). However, the parameters are different when word length is measured in
different units (character and component respectively). This indicates that the
Zipf-Alecseev¡¯s function is sensitive to word length measurement units, but not
text styles.</span>
</div>
%K Word Length
%K Chinese
%K Zipf-Alekseev¡¯s Function
%K Measurement Units
%K Text Styles
%U http://www.oalib.com/paper/5294034