ArticleslgStudy

science

Ōno's lexical law

Ōno's lexical law is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ōno's lexical law rather than just read about it. In short: Ōno's lexical law, or simply Ōno's law, is a statistical law for the varying rate that four word classes that appear in the lexicon of classical Japanese literary works. The law was discovered by Japanese linguist Susumu Ōno and published in 1956.

Ōno's lexical law — main illustration
Ōno's lexical law — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Ōno's lexical law belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Ōno's lexical law to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Ōno's lexical law from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ōno's lexical law, or simply Ōno's law, is a statistical law for the varying rate that four word classes that appear in the lexicon of classical Japanese literary works. The law was discovered by Japanese linguist Susumu Ōno and published in 1956.

Summary The law states that, for the nine literary works under consideration (one work is in two editions, hence ten manuscripts total), the percentage of words in each of the four given word classes vary simultaneously linearly, between the most noun-heavy Man'yōshū and the most verb-heavy Tale of Genji. The four word classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adjectival nouns, with nouns and verbs being the bulk of the words. If there were only two word classes, this statement would be trivial: as one word class (say, nouns) decreases, the other (say, verbs) increases by exactly the corresponding amount. However, what the law observes is that as use of nouns decreases, use of verbs and adjectives and adjectival nouns increases, and that these increase by approximately constant proportions (hence linear). The horizontal axis (in Ōno's formulation) is arbitrary, and should not be interpreted as time. The graph in the re-formulation by Mizutani is more easily interpreted, and shows a scatter plot of nouns versus other word classes.

Ōno's lexical law (original version)

Obtain the rates of usage for four word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adjectival noun for Man'yōshū and Genji Monogatari. Plot the rates of the four word classes for the Man'yōshū on the y-axis. Then plot the rates for the Genji Monogatari on a vertical line to the right. Connecting the two points for the noun reveals a monotonically decreasing line, while connecting the two points for any of the other word classes results in a monotonically increasing line. Plot an additional point corresponding to any of the other seven classic works on each line of the word classes. This reveals that any of those new point sets for one of the additional works on different lines of word classes is located approximately on a different vertical line.

Revised Ōno's lexical law by Mizutani

Let the rates of noun usage in the lexicon of 3 arbitrary literary works A, B, and C be

X 0 , x , X 1 {\displaystyle X_{0},x,X_{1}} , respectively. With rates Y 0 , y , Y 1 {\displaystyle Y_{0},y,Y_{1}} for usage of another word class of the same 3 literatures, respectively, then 3 points, ( X 0 , Y 0 ) , ( x , y ) , ( X 1 , Y 1 ) {\displaystyle (X_{0},Y_{0}),(x,y),(X_{1},Y_{1})} will approximately be located on a line. Namely,

References and notes

Illustrations

Ōno's lexical law: Fig. 2. Plot of (xi,yi) of a literary work i based on the revised law by Mizutani. xi denotes the rate of noun and yi, the rate of a word class. For each word class, a least squares line is depicted.
Fig. 2. Plot of (xi,yi) of a literary work i based on the revised law by Mizutani. xi denotes the rate of noun and yi, the rate of a word class. For each word class, a least squares line is depicted.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ōno's lexical law

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ōno's lexical law claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ōno's lexical law before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ōno's lexical law ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ōno's lexical law

In research
Ōno's lexical law appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Ōno's lexical law in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Ōno's lexical law is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Corpus linguistics, Japanese language, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Ōno's lexical law outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Ōno's lexical law” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ōno's lexical law in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Ōno's lexical law means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Ōno's lexical law out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ōno's lexical law in simple terms?

Ōno's lexical law, or simply Ōno's law, is a statistical law for the varying rate that four word classes that appear in the lexicon of classical Japanese literary works. The law was discovered by Japanese linguist Susumu Ōno and published in 1956.

Why does Ōno's lexical law matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ōno's lexical law?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ōno's lexical law.

Tags

  • Corpus linguistics
  • Japanese language

Keep exploring