The Menzerath-Altmann law as the relation between lengths of words and morphemes in Czech

Kateřina Pelegrinová; Ján Mačutek; Radek Čech

doi:10.2478/jazcas-2021-0037

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The Menzerath-Altmann law as the relation between lengths of words and morphemes in Czech

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

Volume 72 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

By: Kateřina Pelegrinová, Ján Mačutek and Radek Čech

Open Access

|Dec 2021

Abstract

It is shown that the mean morpheme length (measured in phonemes) decreases with the increasing length of word types (in morphemes) in Czech texts, i.e., these language units behave according to the Menzerath-Altmann law. The law is not valid in general for word tokens. Some hints towards an interpretation of parameters are presented.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0037 | Journal eISSN: 1338-4287 | Journal ISSN: 0021-5597

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Language: English

Page range: 405 - 414

Published on: Dec 30, 2021

Published by: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

Keywords:

Menzerath-Altmann law,

word,

morpheme,

phoneme,

Czech

Related subjects:

Linguistics and semiotics,

Theoretical frameworks and disciplines,

Linguistics, other

© 2021 Kateřina Pelegrinová, Ján Mačutek, Radek Čech, published by Slovak Academy of Sciences, Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Volume 72 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)