Zipf on language change/structure

[Matt Shibatani]

Noel, yes Givon's idea is highly similar to Zipf's on the correlation
between the magnitude of a linguistic expression and the familiarity of the
situation.  However, I am more inclined to go for the semantic
distinctness/explicitness line than  (simple) structural complexity for
unexpected/unfamiliar situations.

Best,
Matt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Noel Rude" <nrude at Ballangrud.com>
To: "Matt Shibatani" <matt at RICE.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: Zipf on language change/structure


> Interesting!
>
>     Wonder how Zipf's "Law of Abbreviation" relates to (Givon's?)
> observation that the unexpected requires more coding than the expected?
> Wouldn't it seem that the expected would be mentioned less frequently and
> the unexpected more frequently?  Interesting.
>
>     Noel
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matt Shibatani" <matt at RICE.EDU>
> To: <FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 8:11 AM
> Subject: Zipf on language change/structure
>
>
> Hi folks,
>
>      In connection to the recent posting by Bill Croft and the recent
> interest in a usage-based explanation of language change-frequency inter
> alia (Bybee and Hopper 2001)-I would like to know how Zipf's early work on
> frequency and language structure has been (re)assessed, if at all. I know
> Jack Hawkins is trying to formalize Zipf's insights and to connect them
with
> the processing theory. We also recall Haiman's (1983) utilization of
Zipf's
> economic motivation in his discussion of reflexives/middles and
reciprocals.
>
>    The following is the quote from the relevant sections from Zipf, G.
> (1935) THE PSYCHO-BIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt Shibatani
>
>
>
> "In view of the evidence of the stream of speech we may say that the
length
> of a word tends to bear an inverse relationship to its relative frequency;
> and in view of the influence of high frequency on the shortenings from
> truncation and from durable and temporary abbreviatory substitution, it
> seems a plausible deduction that, as the relative frequency of a word
> increases, it tends to diminish in magnitude. This tendency of a
decreasing
> magnitude to result from an increase in relative frequency, maybe
> tentatively named the Law of Abbreviation." (38)
>
>    "The law of abbreviation seems to reflect on the one hand an impulse in
> language toward the maintenance of an equilibrium between length and
> frequency, and on the other hand an underlying law of economy as the causa
> causans of this impulse toward equilibrium." (38)
>
>
>
>     "The magnitude of complexity of speech-configuration which bears an
>
> inverse (not necessarily proportionate) relationship to its relative
> frequency,
>
> reflects also in an inverse (not necessarily proportionate) way the extent
> to
>
> which  the category is familiar in common usage." (272)
>
>
>
> "The degree of distinctness of meaning.seem[s] to bear an inverse
> relationship to
>
> F[requency] and C[rystalization] [of the configuration]."  (157)
>
>
>
> "the minimal degree of complexity necessary for comprehensible speech
>
>   between persons reflects the degree of unusualness (in their group) of
the
>
>  experiences spoken of, or, somewhat more precisely stated, the
unusualness
>
>  of speech about those experiences." (273)
>
>