发现中英文标点分布共享通用规律，揭示语言共性。
Quantifying patterns of punctuation in modern Chinese prose
- 用离散威布尔分布分析中文字间距，发现与西文相似模式。
- 中文标点间距符合威布尔模型，长间距出现频率低于英文。
- 复杂句式结构反映在句子长度变异性上，适合语言学研究者。
近期研究表明，文本中的标点模式在不同语言间具有普适特征。对西方古典文学的分析显示，标点间的空格分布符合离散威布尔分布，常用于生存分析。将此分析扩展至三部当代中文文学作品，发现中文文本同样遵循齐普夫定律（Zipf's law），且标点模式能增强该定律的适用性。此外，中文文本中标点间的距离分布也符合威布尔模型，但长间距出现频率低于英文译本。句末标点（代表句长）偏离该模式更明显，反映出句长更具灵活性。这种变异性支持复杂、多分形的句法结构形成，尤其在高行健的《灵魂山》中表现突出。研究证明，中英文文本在标点与词汇分布上共享普适规律，表明其跨语言广泛适用性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Recent research shows that punctuation patterns in texts exhibit universal features across languages. Analysis of Western classical literature reveals that the distribution of spaces between punctuation marks aligns with a discrete Weibull distribution, typically used in survival analysis. By extending this analysis to Chinese literature represented here by three notable contemporary works, it is shown that Zipf's law applies to Chinese texts similarly to Western texts, where punctuation patterns also improve adherence to the law. Additionally, the distance distribution between punctuation marks in Chinese texts follows the Weibull model, though larger spacing is less frequent than in English translations. Sentence-ending punctuation, representing sentence length, diverges more from this pattern, reflecting greater flexibility in sentence length. This variability supports the formation of complex, multifractal sentence structures, particularly evident in Gao Xingjian's "Soul Mountain". These findings demonstrate that both Chinese and Western texts share universal punctuation and word distribution patterns, underscoring their broad applicability across languages.
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