On the dynamics of the compounding of Japanese kanji with common and proper nouns∗

Abstract

The present study examines the dynamics of the kanji combinations that form common (or general) and proper nouns in Japanese. The following three results were obtained. First, the degree of distribution results from two similar processes which are based on a steady-state of birth-and-death processes with different birth and death rates, resulting in a positive negative binomial distribution with the proper nouns and in a positive Waring distribution with common nouns. Second, all rank-frequency distributions follow the negative hypergeometric distribution used very frequently in ranking problems. Third, the building of kanji compounds follows a dissortative strategy. The higher the outdegree of a kanji, the more it prefers kanji with lower indegrees. A linear dependence can be observed with common nouns, whereas the relationship between compounded kanji is rather curvilinear with proper nouns. The actual analytical expression is not yet known.

Phase transitions in least-effort communications

“…For instance, Kosmidis et al [9] relate their statistical mechanical approach to human language to "the pioneering work of Cancho and Solé [6] who attempt to derive Zipf law using the principle of least action", while Hunt [10] refers to the work of Ferrer i Cancho and Solé in listing minimum effort among six underlying mechanisms that may lead to power laws -in addition to nonlinear dynamics (chaos), self-organized criticality, hierarchical dynamics, highly optimized tolerance, and fractal fracture properties. The contribution of the work of Ferrer i Cancho and Solé was acknowledged in other diverse contexts: quantitative linguistics [11], public transport [12], immune networks [13], genetic coding [14], etc.…”