Entropy of Symbolic Sequences: The Role of Correlations

Abstract

The role of correlations in the a priori probability of occurrence of a symbolic sequence is analysed, on the basis of the scaling behaviour of the entropy as a function of the sequence length. It is shown that sporadic systems give rise to peculiar scaling properties as a result of long-range correlations. The potential implications of this possibility in the structure of natural languages are explored. © 1991 IOP Publishing Ltd.