A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study

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A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study
Authors
Taha Yasseri
András Kornai
János Kertész
János Kertész
Publication date
2012
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0048386
Links
Original Preprint

A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study - scientific work related to Wikipedia quality published in 2012, written by Taha Yasseri, András Kornai, János Kertész and János Kertész.

Overview

In this paper authors present statistical analysis of English texts from Wikipedia. Authors try to address the issue of language complexity empirically by comparing the simple English Wikipedia (Simple) to comparable samples of the main English Wikipedia (Main). Simple is supposed to use a more simplified language with a limited vocabulary, and editors are explicitly requested to follow this guideline, yet in practice the vocabulary richness of both samples are at the same level. Detailed analysis of longer units (n-grams of words and part of speech tags) shows that the language of Simple is less complex than that of Main primarily due to the use of shorter sentences, as opposed to drastically simplified syntax or vocabulary. Comparing the two language varieties by the Gunning readability index supports this conclusion. Authors also report on the topical dependence of language complexity, that is, that the language is more advanced in conceptual articles compared to person-based (biographical) and object-based articles. Finally, authors investigate the relation between conflict and language complexity by analyzing the content of the talk pages associated to controversial and peacefully developing articles, concluding that controversy has the effect of reducing language complexity.

Embed

Wikipedia Quality

Yasseri, Taha; Kornai, András; Kertész, János; Kertész, János. (2012). "[[A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study]]". Public Library of Science. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048386.

English Wikipedia

{{cite journal |last1=Yasseri |first1=Taha |last2=Kornai |first2=András |last3=Kertész |first3=János |last4=Kertész |first4=János |title=A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study |date=2012 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0048386 |url=https://wikipediaquality.com/wiki/A_Practical_Approach_to_Language_Complexity:_a_Wikipedia_Case_Study |journal=Public Library of Science}}

HTML

Yasseri, Taha; Kornai, András; Kertész, János; Kertész, János. (2012). &quot;<a href="https://wikipediaquality.com/wiki/A_Practical_Approach_to_Language_Complexity:_a_Wikipedia_Case_Study">A Practical Approach to Language Complexity: a Wikipedia Case Study</a>&quot;. Public Library of Science. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048386.