Letters to Nature Nature 178, 1308 (08 December 1956); doi:10.1038/1781308a0

A Theory of Word-Frequency Distribution

A. F. PARKER-RHODES & T. JOYCE

Cambridge Language Research Unit, 20 Millington Road, Cambridge.

THE object of this communication is to show that a certain remarkably simple experimental relation governing word-frequencies in language can be explained by a simple model of the process of searching for information, about each word heard or read, in the memory of words employed in the language faculty.