Semantic networks: Structure and dynamics

Abstract

During the last ten years several studies have appeared regarding language complexity. Research on this issue began soon after the burst of a new movement of interest and research in the study of complex networks, i.e., networks whose structure is irregular, complex and dynamically evolving in time. In the first years, network approach to language mostly focused on a very abstract and general overview of language complexity, and few of them studied how this complexity is actually embodied in humans or how it affects cognition. However research has slowly shifted from the language-oriented towards a more cognitive-oriented point of view. This review first offers a brief summary on the methodological and formal foundations of complex networks, then it attempts a general vision of research activity on language from a complex networks perspective, and specially highlights those efforts with cognitive-inspired aim. © 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.