Comparison of ancient and modern Chinese based on complex weighted networks

In this study, we compare statistical properties of ancient and modern Chinese within the framework of weighted complex networks. We examine two language networks based on different Chinese versions of the Records of the Grand Historian. The comparative results show that Zipf’s law holds and that both networks are scale-free and disassortative. The interactivity and connectivity of the two networks lead us to expect that the modern Chinese text would have more phrases than the ancient Chinese one. Furthermore, by considering some of the topological and weighted quantities, we find that expressions in ancient Chinese are briefer than in modern Chinese. These observations indicate that the two languages might have different linguistic mechanisms and combinatorial natures, which we attribute to the stylistic differences and evolution of written Chinese.