Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Journal Club
| Date: | Jun 15, 2009 | |
| Title: | "A review of statistical studies of human languages." | |
| Speaker: | Samarth Chandra. | |
| Reference: | "" | |
| Abstract: | Statistical physics techniques have been used to study human languages. Prominent techniques found useful there are variable structure markov chains and models inspired by spin glasses. I will take the review by Seidenberg (Science, vol 275, pg 1599) as the main reference although a substantial part of the talk will be spent discussing the back references and the ideas about languages before statistical physics. By the end of the talk I hope to sketch the evolution of this sub-field of biophysics and also the current understanding. |