Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29489837›Full record

ArticlePloS one2018

How does language change as a lexical network? An investigation based on written Chinese word co-occurrence networks.

Heng Chen, Xinying Chen, Haitao Liu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Heng ChenCenter for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.
Xinying ChenSchool of Foreign Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Haitao LiuCenter for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.ORCID 0000-0003-1724-4418

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Language is a complex adaptive system, but how does it change? For investigating this process, four diachronic Chinese word co-occurrence networks have been built based on texts that were written during the last 2,000 years. By comparing the network indicators that are associated with the hierarchical features in language networks, we learn that the hierarchy of Chinese lexical networks has indeed evolved over time at three different levels. The connections of words at the micro level are continually weakening; the number of words in the meso-level communities has increased significantly; and the network is expanding at the macro level. This means that more and more words tend to be connected to medium-central words and form different communities. Meanwhile, fewer high-central words link these communities into a highly efficient small-world network. Understanding this process may be crucial for understanding the increasing structural complexity of the language system.

Indexed as

LanguageChinaHumans

Identifiers

PMID29489837
PMCPMC5830315

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.