A formal measurement of the cognitive complexity of texts in cognitive linguistics

Abstract

The cognitive complexity of texts in natural languages is a fundamental measure of the properties of syntax and semantics in textual comprehension, processing, and search. This paper presents a formal metrics of text comprehension complexity in cognitive linguistics. Both objective and subjective aspects of text comprehension and their complexity are formally modeled. A formal language model is established that characterizes the discourse of natural languages. The mathematical models of cognitive complexity of texts and their comprehension are rigorously described. On the basis of the cognitive and mathematical models of cognitive linguistics, the measurement of cognitive complexity of texts is quantitatively established and tested by a set of case studies. A wide range of applications of the measurement of textual complexity are identified in cognitive linguistics and contemporary web technologies such as search engines, online document retrieval, natural language processing, cognitive linguistics, cognitive computing, cognitive machine learning, and computing with words.