研究大模型如何改变科学英语的词汇结构，发现语义变化比单纯用词替换更显著。
Exploring the Structure of AI-Induced Language Change in Scientific English
- 分析医学论文中高频词的语义群演变，考察其语法类别变化
- 多数'飙升词'成群出现，表明语义和语用层面整体变化
- 低频词如'important'下降，反映语言演变具有复杂性
近年来，科学英语发生了快速而前所未有的变化，如‘delve’、‘intricate’、‘crucial’等词自2022年起频率显著上升。这些变化普遍归因于大型语言模型（如ChatGPT）在偏见与对齐问题讨论中的影响。然而，除了频率变化外，语言变迁的具体结构尚不清晰。本研究探讨这些变化是否表现为同义词被突然‘飙升词’取代（如‘crucial’替代‘essential’和‘key’），或体现为更广泛的语义与语用调整。通过在文献分析中引入词性标注，量化不同语法类别中的语言变化，并区分词形差异（如‘potential’作为名词与形容词）。基于PubMed科学摘要数据，系统分析了广泛讨论的‘飙升词’同义词组的频率趋势。结果发现，整个语义簇常同步变动，多数甚至全部词语同时增加使用。这表明大模型引发的语言变化主要为语义与语用层面，而非单纯的词汇替换。值得注意的是，形容词‘important’呈现显著下降趋势，促使我们系统分析‘衰退词’。对‘塌缩词’的分析揭示出更复杂的图景，与自然语言演化一致，区别于突发性激增模式。这些关于语言变化结构的洞见，有助于理解语言技术如何持续塑造人类语言。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Scientific English has undergone rapid and unprecedented changes in recent years, with words such as "delve," "intricate," and "crucial" showing significant spikes in frequency since around 2022. These changes are widely attributed to the growing influence of Large Language Models like ChatGPT in the discourse surrounding bias and misalignment. However, apart from changes in frequency, the exact structure of these linguistic shifts has remained unclear. The present study addresses this and investigates whether these changes involve the replacement of synonyms by suddenly 'spiking words,' for example, "crucial" replacing "essential" and "key," or whether they reflect broader semantic and pragmatic qualifications. To further investigate structural changes, we include part of speech tagging in our analysis to quantify linguistic shifts over grammatical categories and differentiate between word forms, like "potential" as a noun vs. as an adjective. We systematically analyze synonym groups for widely discussed 'spiking words' based on frequency trends in scientific abstracts from PubMed. We find that entire semantic clusters often shift together, with most or all words in a group increasing in usage. This pattern suggests that changes induced by Large Language Models are primarily semantic and pragmatic rather than purely lexical. Notably, the adjective "important" shows a significant decline, which prompted us to systematically analyze decreasing lexical items. Our analysis of "collapsing" words reveals a more complex picture, which is consistent with organic language change and contrasts with the patterns of the abrupt spikes. These insights into the structure of language change contribute to our understanding of how language technology continues to shape human language.
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