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SUMMARY:Linguistic complexity as optimal grammar length: An information-th
 eoretic approach - Fermín Moscoso del Prado Martín\, Laboratoire Dynamiq
 ue du Langage\, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique & Institut R
 hône-Alpin des Systèmes Complexes\, Lyon
DTSTART:20110308T160000Z
DTEND:20110308T173000Z
UID:TALK29884@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Chris Cummins
DESCRIPTION:I will introduce a general and easily computable definition of
  linguistic complexity. I\nwill show how simple information-theoretical me
 asures can be used to compute Gell-Mann’s Effective Complexity measure f
 or language. The measure is derived as the\nminimal possible size of a gra
 mmar that can generate all sentences in a reference\ncorpus. The length of
  the reference corpus is then taken to its infinite limit (thus\nensuring 
 that all possible sentences in the language can be generated). I discuss t
 he\nnecessary condition that must be met for the existence of a finite gr
 ammar describing\na given language. Finally\, through the analysis of two 
 American English corpora\n(one written and one spoken)\, I demonstrate the
  impossibility of constructing a finite\ngrammar with full coverage of Eng
 lish. I will conclude by discussing the theoretical\nimplications of this 
 finding.
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
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