Information-theoretic properties of languages and their grammars
By: [by] B.J. MacLennan
Contributors: Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School
Published: 1984
Place of publication: Monterey, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 47
Subjects: Comparative and general Grammar; Linguistic String Parser (Computer grammar); Cybernetics
Description: This document describes means for computing a number of information-theoretic properties of languages and their grammars. For example, the entropy of a system of symbols is widely recognized as a measure of that system's complexity and organization. It is shown how the entropy of a language can be computed in a simple way from a grammar annotated with production probabilities. The author then develops means for statistically estimating these production probabilities from measureable properties of strings in the language. He also considers the computation of other information theoretic properties of language and grammars, such as the average information born by a symbol in a language and the average information used by the productions of a grammar. (Author)
Notes: Title from cover.

"Prepared for: Chief of Naval Research"--Cover.

"August 1984"--Cover.

"NPS52-84-010"--Cover.

DTIC Identifiers: Strings.

Author(s) key words: Entropy, negentropy, information theory, language metrics, quantitative linguistics, language complexity, information content of languages, average derivation length, average information used by grammars, average string length, information density, frequency of occurrence, annotated grammar.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 47).

"Approved for public release; distribution unlimited"--Cover.

Technical report; 1984.

aq/  /aq cc:9116 09/12/97

kmc/kmc 10/28/09.