dependency syntax; Menzerath-Altmann law; linear dependency segment; rank-frequency distribution; length distribution

The linear dependency segment is a new language unit which combines word order with syntactic dependency structure. It has been demonstrated that it obeys the Menzerath-Altmann law. In this paper, we show that its rank-frequency distribution and length distribution also behave analogously to other, more traditional linguistic units. The linear dependency segment thus seems to be an intermediate unit between word and clause.

The linear dependency segment is a new language unit which combines word order with syntactic dependency structure. It has been demonstrated that it obeys the Menzerath-Altmann law. In this paper, we show that its rank-frequency distribution and length distribution also behave analogously to other, more traditional linguistic units. The linear dependency segment thus seems to be an intermediate unit between word and clause.