Network differences between normal and shuffled texts: Case of croatian

Abstract

This paper is an initial attempt to study the properties of the Croatian word order via complex networks. We present network properties of normal and shuffled Croatian texts for different co-occurrence window sizes and different linkage boundaries. The results of network analysis show that the text shuffling causes the decrease of the network diameter, due to the establishment of previously non-existing links. This indicates that the syntax does play a significant role in the Croatian language, although it is a mostly free word-order language. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.