Scaling behavior and text cohesion in Korean texts

PLoS One. 2023 Aug 31;18(8):e0290168. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290168. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

This study examines whether different types of texts, particularly in Korean, can be distinguished by the scaling exponent and degree of text cohesion. We use the controlled growth process model to incorporate the interaction effect into a power-law distribution and estimate the implied parameter explaining the degree of text cohesiveness in a word distribution. We find that the word distributions of Korean languages differ from English regarding the range of scaling exponents. Additionally, different types of Korean texts display similar scaling exponents regardless of their genre. However, the interaction effect is higher for expert reports than for the benchmark novels. The findings suggest a valid framework for explaining the scaling phenomena of word distribution based on microscale interactions. It also suggests that a viable method exists for inferring text genres based on text cohesion.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program ATC+ (20014125, Development of Intelligent Management Solution for Nuclear Decommissioning Site Characterization) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (Republic of Korea). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.