An empirical study of Chinese word-word language directed network

In this paper, we explore the statistical properties of Chinese language network within the framework of complex network theory. Based on one of the common databases in China, i.e. Tshinghua Unisplendour's one, we construct Chinese word-word language directed network (CWWLDN). The node in CWWLDN represents a single character, and while a directed link between two nodes exists if two different characters appear in the same words. The empirical results show that CWWLDN possesses scale-free behaviorand small-world effect. Two characteristics indicate that CWWLDN is similar to other previously studied language networks, which shows that different languages may have some common properties in their evolutionary processes. We believe that our research may shed some new light into the Chinese language evolution and find some potentially significant implications.