The existence of negative correlation between linguistic measures across languages

Abstract

AbstractThis paper proposes a procedure to evaluate the possible existence of negative correlation between three language ratios (phonemes per syllable, syllables per word, and words per clause), based on a synergetic linguistics’ approach. It uses partial correlation coefficients and simultaneous-equation regressions, and the analysis is performed on data obtained from the fable “The North Wind and the Sun”, translated into 50 languages. After controlling for phenomena related to geographic and genetic factors, we end up with the conclusion that the three ratios are negatively correlated between themselves, and this can be seen as a signal of the possible existence of complexity trade-offs.