IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v493y2018icp311-329.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are crossing dependencies really scarce?

Author

Listed:
  • Ferrer-i-Cancho, R.
  • Gómez-Rodríguez, C.
  • Esteban, J.L.

Abstract

The syntactic structure of a sentence can be modelled as a tree, where vertices correspond to words and edges indicate syntactic dependencies. It has been claimed recurrently that the number of edge crossings in real sentences is small. However, a baseline or null hypothesis has been lacking. Here we quantify the amount of crossings of real sentences and compare it to the predictions of a series of baselines. We conclude that crossings are really scarce in real sentences. Their scarcity is unexpected by the hubiness of the trees. Indeed, real sentences are close to linear trees, where the potential number of crossings is maximized.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferrer-i-Cancho, R. & Gómez-Rodríguez, C. & Esteban, J.L., 2018. "Are crossing dependencies really scarce?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 493(C), pages 311-329.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:493:y:2018:i:c:p:311-329
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2017.10.048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437117310580
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2017.10.048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. T. Gastner & M. E.J. Newman, 2006. "The spatial structure of networks," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 49(2), pages 247-252, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Xiaojie & Slamu, Wushour & Guo, Wenqiang & Wang, Sixiu & Ren, Yan, 2022. "A novel semi local measure of identifying influential nodes in complex networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Carayol, Nicolas & Roux, Pascale, 2009. "Knowledge flows and the geography of networks: A strategic model of small world formation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 414-427, August.
    3. Aldrich, Preston R. & El-Zabet, Jermeen & Hassan, Seerat & Briguglio, Joseph & Aliaj, Enela & Radcliffe, Maria & Mirza, Taha & Comar, Timothy & Nadolski, Jeremy & Huebner, Cynthia D., 2015. "Monte Carlo tests of small-world architecture for coarse-grained networks of the United States railroad and highway transportation systems," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 438(C), pages 32-39.
    4. Wang, Shiguang & Zheng, Lili & Yu, Dexin, 2017. "The improved degree of urban road traffic network: A case study of Xiamen, China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 469(C), pages 256-264.
    5. Waddell, Paul & Boeing, Geoff & Gardner, Max & Porter, Emily, 2018. "An Integrated Pipeline Architecture for Modeling Urban Land Use, Travel Demand, and Traffic Assignment," SocArXiv 74zaw, Center for Open Science.
    6. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Planarity and street network representation in urban form analysis," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(5), pages 855-869, June.
    7. Lü, Linyuan & Zhou, Tao, 2011. "Link prediction in complex networks: A survey," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(6), pages 1150-1170.
    8. SOHN Christophe & CHRISTOPOULOS Dimitris & KOSKINEN Johan, 2013. "Geography and social networks. Modelling the effects of territorial borders on policy networks," LISER Working Paper Series 2013-19, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    9. Dupuy, Gabriel, 2013. "Network geometry and the urban railway system: the potential benefits to geographers of harnessing inputs from “naive” outsiders," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 85-94.
    10. Zhang, X. & Miller-Hooks, E. & Denny, K., 2015. "Assessing the role of network topology in transportation network resilience," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 35-45.
    11. Boeing, Geoff, 2017. "Methods and Measures for Analyzing Complex Street Networks and Urban Form," SocArXiv 93h82, Center for Open Science.
    12. James R Clough & Tim S Evans, 2017. "Embedding graphs in Lorentzian spacetime," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-14, November.
    13. Zengwang Xu & Daniel Sui, 2007. "Small-world characteristics on transportation networks: a perspective from network autocorrelation," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 189-205, June.
    14. Moreno-Pulido, Soledad & Pavón-Domínguez, Pablo & Burgos-Pintos, Pedro, 2021. "Temporal evolution of multifractality in the Madrid Metro subway network," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    15. Pavón-Domínguez, P. & Rincón-Casado, A. & Ruiz, P. & Camacho-Magriñán, P., 2018. "Multifractal approach for comparing road transport network geometry: The case of Spain," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 510(C), pages 678-690.
    16. Boeing, Geoff, 2020. "Street Network Models and Indicators for Every Urban Area in the World," SocArXiv f2dqc, Center for Open Science.
    17. Andreas Hatzigeorgiou & Magnus Lodefalk, 2019. "Migration and servicification: Do immigrant employees spur firm exports of services?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(11), pages 3368-3401, November.
    18. Robert Peach & Alexis Arnaudon & Mauricio Barahona, 2022. "Relative, local and global dimension in complex networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Xinglong Wang & Shangfei Miao & Junqing Tang, 2020. "Vulnerability and Resilience Analysis of the Air Traffic Control Sector Network in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    20. Duncan A. Robertson, 2019. "Spatial Transmission Models: A Taxonomy and Framework," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(1), pages 225-243, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:493:y:2018:i:c:p:311-329. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.