Physics Beyond Physics: Application of Physical Approaches in Quantitative Linguistics

Abstract

The application of physical methods to solve non-physical problems has been considered. In particular, the prospects of physical approaches in quantitative linguistics are analyzed. The difference between the physical and non-physical methods is illustrated by an example of already existing “classical” models. A few mathematical models which make it possible to determine the rank-frequency dependence for words in a frequency dictionary, as well as the dependence of the dictionary volume on the text length, are proposed. It is shown that the physical approaches and principles that are used in physics can also be successfully applied to create mathematical models in linguistics.