15-08-2025, 12:31 PM
Hello Antonio,
The issue (already mentioned in this thread) is that the trend needs to be considered over a large range of ranks and frequencies, not the first x words.
The Cryptologia article used 8213 word types. You are basing your conclusion on the 20 most frequent word types. That is only 0.002 of the available data.
I also invite you to check Zipf's book (The psychobiology of language, available though Google books). Of special interest is plate IV (English & Latin) which shows for Latin exactly the same effect that you now consider to be a reason to reject the rank frequency law.
Regards,
G
The issue (already mentioned in this thread) is that the trend needs to be considered over a large range of ranks and frequencies, not the first x words.
The Cryptologia article used 8213 word types. You are basing your conclusion on the 20 most frequent word types. That is only 0.002 of the available data.
I also invite you to check Zipf's book (The psychobiology of language, available though Google books). Of special interest is plate IV (English & Latin) which shows for Latin exactly the same effect that you now consider to be a reason to reject the rank frequency law.
Regards,
G


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