Entropic evolution of lexical richness of homogeneous texts over time: A dynamic complexity perspective

Abstract

This work concerns the evolving pattern of the lexical richness of the corpus text of China Government Work Report measured by entropy, based on a fundamental assumption that these texts are linguistically homogeneous. The corpus is interpreted and studied as a dynamic system, the components of which maintain spontaneous variations, adjustment, self-organizations, and adaptations to fit into the semantic, discourse and  sociolinguistic functions that the text is set to perform. Both the macroscopic structural trend and the microscopic fluctuations of the time series of the interested entropic process are meticulously investigated from the dynamic complexity theoretical perspective. Rigorous nonlinear regression analysis is provided throughout the study for empirical justifications to the theoretical postulations.  An overall concave model with modulated fluctuations incorporated is proposed and statistically tested to represent the key quantitative findings.  Possible extensions of the current study are discussed.