Zipf's law refers to the finding that:
A) words that occur frequently are short and words that occur rarely tend to be longer
B) words are more memorable when presented in larger font sizes
C) higher-probability messages are easier to encode
D) the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Zipf's law is a principle in linguistics that states that the frequency of any given word is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table. Thus, the most frequent word will occur approximately twice as often as the second most frequent word, three times as often as the third most frequent word, and so on. This often results in a situation where more frequently occurring words tend to be shorter, as they are used more often and thus efficiency in communication is optimized.

Zipf's Law Refers to the Finding That