arXiv subjects

Niloy Ganguly

Publications and source records attributed to Niloy Ganguly.

114 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Self-organization of the Sound Inventories: Analysis and Synthesis of the Occurrence and Co-occurrence Networks of Consonants

The sound inventories of the world's languages self-organize themselves giving rise to similar cross-linguistic patterns. In this work we attempt to capture this phenomenon of self-organization, which shapes the structure of the consonant inventories, through a complex network approach. For this purpose we define the occurrence and co-occurrence networks of consonants and systematically study some of their important topological properties. A crucial observation is that the occurrence as well as the co-occurrence of consonants across languages follow a power law distribution. This property is arguably a consequence of the principle of preferential attachment. In order to support this argument we propose a synthesis model which reproduces the degree distribution for the networks to a close approximation. We further observe that the co-occurrence network of consonants show a high degree of clustering and subsequently refine our synthesis model in order to incorporate this property. Finally, we discuss how preferential attachment manifests itself through the evolutionary nature of language.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2007

Emergence of a non-scaling degree distribution in bipartite networks: a numerical and analytical study

We study the growth of bipartite networks in which the number of nodes in one of the partitions is kept fixed while the other partition is allowed to grow. We study random and preferential attachment as well as combination of both. We derive the exact analytical expression for the degree-distribution of all these different types of attachments while assuming that edges are incorporated sequentially, i.e., a single edge is added to the growing network in a time step. We also provide an approximate expression for the case when more than one edge are added in a time step. We show that depending on the relative weight between random and preferential attachment, the degree-distribution of this type of network falls into one of four possible regimes which range from a binomial distribution for pure random attachment to an u-shaped distribution for dominant preferential attachment.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2007

How Difficult is it to Develop a Perfect Spell-checker? A Cross-linguistic Analysis through Complex Network Approach

The difficulties involved in spelling error detection and correction in a language have been investigated in this work through the conceptualization of SpellNet - the weighted network of words, where edges indicate orthographic proximity between two words. We construct SpellNets for three languages - Bengali, English and Hindi. Through appropriate mathematical analysis and/or intuitive justification, we interpret the different topological metrics of SpellNet from the perspective of the issues related to spell-checking. We make many interesting observations, the most significant among them being that the probability of making a real word error in a language is propotionate to the average weighted degree of SpellNet, which is found to be highest for Hindi, followed by Bengali and English.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2007

Rediscovering the Co-occurrence Principles of Vowel Inventories: A Complex Network Approach

In this work, we attempt to capture patterns of co-occurrence across vowel systems and at the same time figure out the nature of the force leading to the emergence of such patterns. For this purpose we define a weighted network where the vowels are the nodes and an edge between two nodes (read vowels) signify their co-occurrence likelihood over the vowel inventories. Through this network we identify communities of vowels, which essentially reflect their patterns of co-occurrence across languages. We observe that in the assortative vowel communities the constituent nodes (read vowels) are largely uncorrelated in terms of their features and show that they are formed based on the principle of maximal perceptual contrast. However, in the rest of the communities, strong correlations are reflected among the constituent vowels with respect to their features indicating that it is the principle of feature economy that binds them together. We validate the above observations by proposing a quantitative measure of perceptual contrast as well as feature economy and subsequently comparing the results obtained due to these quantifications with those where we assume that the vowel inventories had evolved just by chance.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2006

Analysis and Synthesis of the Distribution of Consonants over Languages: A Complex Network Approach

Cross-linguistic similarities are reflected by the speech sound systems of languages all over the world. In this work we try to model such similarities observed in the consonant inventories, through a complex bipartite network. We present a systematic study of some of the appealing features of these inventories with the help of the bipartite network. An important observation is that the occurrence of consonants follows a two regime power law distribution. We find that the consonant inventory size distribution together with the principle of preferential attachment are the main reasons behind the emergence of such a two regime behavior. In order to further support our explanation we present a synthesis model for this network based on the general theory of preferential attachment.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2006

Modeling the Co-occurrence Principles of the Consonant Inventories: A Complex Network Approach

Speech sounds of the languages all over the world show remarkable patterns of cooccurrence. In this work, we attempt to automatically capture the patterns of cooccurrence of the consonants across languages and at the same time figure out the nature of the force leading to the emergence of such patterns. For this purpose we define a weighted network where the consonants are the nodes and an edge between two nodes (read consonants) signify their co-occurrence likelihood over the consonant inventories. Through this network we identify communities of consonants that essentially reflect their patterns of co-occurrence across languages. We test the goodness of the communities and observe that the constituent consonants frequently occur in such groups in real languages also. Interestingly, the consonants forming these communities reflect strong correlations in terms of their features, which indicate that the principle of feature economy acts as a driving force towards community formation. In order to measure the strength of this force we propose an information theoretic definition of feature economy and show that indeed the feature economy exhibited by the consonant communities are substantially better than those if the consonant inventories had evolved just by chance.

physics.soc-ph↗