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

Kateřina Pelegrinová

Kateřina Pelegrinová

Department of Czech Language, University of OstravaOstrava,
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Pelegrinová, Kateřina
, 
Ján Mačutek

Ján Mačutek

  • Mathematical Institute, Slovak Academy of SciencesBratislava, Slovakia
  • Department of Mathematics, Constantine the Philosopher UniversityNitra, Slovakia
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Mačutek, Ján
 and 
Radek Čech

Radek Čech

Department of Czech Language, University of OstravaOstrava,
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Čech, Radek
  
Dec 30, 2021
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Published Online: Dec 30, 2021
Page range: 405 - 414
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0037
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© 2021 Kateřina Pelegrinová et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

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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English
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Journal Subjects:
Linguistics and Semiotics, Theoretical Frameworks and Disciplines, Linguistics, other
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