George Kingsley Zipf
George Kingsley Zipf [ zɪf ] ( born January 7, 1902 in Freeport ( Illinois), † September 25, 1950 in Newton ( Massachusetts)) was an American linguist.
Zipf studied at Harvard University and came after graduation in 1925 to Germany (Bonn and Berlin). Doctorate at Harvard University, then a teacher of German; since 1936 Assistant Professor of German ( German ) at Harvard University, from 1939 University Lecturer.
Have become known above all his works, in which he examined the frequency of words in different languages. In the 1930s, he developed one of the Zipf's law named after him: one arranges the words of a language according to their frequency and are the most frequent word the rank 1, the second-most rank 2, etc., then by Zipf that the product of rank and frequency results in an always approximately the same constant. This relationship has prevailed in the literature as the most famous " Zipf law." It had to be revised because deviations especially in the very frequent and very rare words were found. For this and other Zipf's law see, among other Crystal (1993: 87) and Prün (1999, 2005). Among the other Zipf's laws are also insights into the relationship between word length and frequency: The more frequently a word is, the shorter it is; also across age and frequency: The more frequently a word is, the older it is. Prün (1999 ) shows how the various laws hang together and form a precursor of linguistic synergetics.
At Zipf is particularly emphasized that he tried to develop the linguistics as a science, which is based on the natural sciences. "His method what THEREFORE quantitative, and his Explanations would today be called functional -systemic " ( Prün & Zipf 2002: 1). Among his major findings of the principle of least effort belongs ( "principle of least effort" ), which means that human words that they use very often, cut into their sound substance, while they tolerate greater lengths on rare words. Considering that the communication partners words exact a reasonable effort to them, provide two opposing principles: in favor of the speaker or writer, the principle of minimizing the production expense and for the benefit of the listener or reader the principle of minimizing the decoding complexity. Both must be in a balanced relationship to each other, so that communication can be successful.
Zipf applies with its focus on the natural sciences, the development of language laws and attempts an explanation for the findings as the pioneer of modern quantitative linguistics.
Works
- George Kingsley Zipf: The Psycho - Biology of Language. An Introduction to Dynamic Philology. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.. . 1935/1965 / 1968 ( with George A. Miller: Introduction, 1965)
- Zipf, George Kingsley: National unity and disunity. Princeton Press, Bloomington, Ind., 1941.
( Zipf's bibliography see web link and Prün & Zipf 2002. )
About Zipf
- Gabriel Altmann: Zipfian linguistics. In: Glottometrics 3, 2002, 19-26.
- David Crystal: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Translated and adapted by the German edition of Stefan Roehrich, Ariane Boeckler and Manfred Jansen. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York 1993. ISBN 3-593-34824-1
- George A. Miller: Introduction to Zipf: The Psycho - Biology of Language. An Introduction to Dynamic Philology. The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.. 1965/1968, pp. V -X.
- Claudia Prün: G.K. Zipf 's conception of language as at early prototype of synergetic linguistics. In: Journal of quantitative linguistics 6, 1999, 78-84.
- Claudia Prün: The work of G.K. Zipf. In: Reinhard Köhler, Gabriel Altmann, Rajmund G. Piotrowski (eds.): Quantitative Linguistics - Quantitative Linguistics. An international handbook. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 142-152. ISBN 3-11-015578-8
- Claudia Prün, Robert Zipf: Biographical notes on GK Zipf. In: Glottometrics 3, 2002, 1-10. ( With factory bibliography)
- Ronald Rousseau: George Kingsley Zipf: life, ideas, his law and informetrics. In: Glottometrics 3, 2002, 11-18.
Festschrift
To Honor G.K. Zipf. In: Glottometrics, Issue 3, 4, 5, 2002.