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Language and Text: Data, models, information and applications
Edited by Adam Pawłowski, Jan Mačutek, Sheila Embleton and George Mikros
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 356] 2021
► pp. 55–68

Quantitative analysis of syllable properties in Croatian, Serbian, Russian, and Ukrainian

| University of Belgrade
| University of Novi Sad
| University of Novi Sad
| University of Belgrade
| University of Belgrade
| Mathematical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences | Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra

Ten chapters from a Russian novel and its translations into Croatian, Serbian, and Ukrainian are automatically syllabified following the same approach in all four languages. Syllable frequencies and syllable length are modelled by probability distributions which are commonly used for frequency and length of words (the Zipf-Mandelbrot distribution and the Dacey-Poisson distribution, respectively). We show that Zipf’s law of brevity, according to which the more frequent words tend to be shorter, can be extended to syllables. We suggest a generalization of the Menzerath-Altmann law, a relation between word length and the mean syllable length. The generalized version of the law is valid for both word types and word tokens.

Keywords: syllable, rank-frequency distribution, length, law of brevity, Menzerath-Altmann law, Slavic languages
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology and language material
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Syllable frequency
    • 3.2Syllable length
    • 3.3Relation between syllable frequency and syllable length
    • 3.4Menzerath-Altmann law
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 22 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.356.04ruj
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