Is the Menzerath-Altmann Law Specific to Certain Languages in Certain Registers?
Lirong Xu, Lianzhen He · Journal of Quantitative Linguistics · 2018
Since its formulation, the Menzerath-Altmann law (MAL) has gone through continuing validation and development when applied to different languages or different language units. However, whether the MAL still holds true irrespective of spoken or written register remains a controversial issue. This article endeavours to re-examine the MAL by investigating the correlation between the length of English sentences (measured in the number of clauses) and their constituting clause length (measured in the number of words) in both academic spoken and written registers. It is observed that the MAL is valid in both registers. Further, the fitted parameter values of the MAL can serve as good predictors for register differentiation.