Yule’s Characteristic- K
Abstract
Yule’s characteristic K (1944) is used
as a stylistic parameter. It is stated that
Yule’s K is independent of size of sample.
This research paper is an attempt to
examine the statement.
Introduction
Word distribution is a typical type
of distribution wherein the form of the
distribution changes with change in
sample size.
Word distributions belong to the
class of distributions of ”multiple
happenings or repeated events." It
gives us the frequency distribution of
frequencies. That is the variable x,
defined as number of times a word
occurs, itself is a frequency.
Hence comparison of the works
of two authors and so also comparison
of the works of the same author
becomes very difficult. Hence
something which characterises the
word distribution and yet is
independent of size of sample is
necessary.
This type of characteristic was
provided by Yule (1944).
It is termed as Yule's
Characteristic K.
According to Yule the
Characteristic characterises the word
distribution and is independent of size
of sample.
He also says that, the conclusion
about the independence of K and size
of sample is purely theoretical and the
practical student will not be thoroughly
convinced unless the Characteristic
stands the test of actual trait.
Methodology
For different sample sizes well
spread over the text, we computed
values of Characteristic proposed by
Yule (1944).
For this study we have selected
the novel “Tess Of D'Urbervillies" of
famous English author Thomas Hardy.
The novel under study is
divided into twenty parts on the basis
of number of words. It was decided to
take different samples of sizes 500;
700; 900; : : : ; 2900 words. There are
thirteen different sizes of samples.
From each of twenty parts one
sample of each size was taken by
following sampling procedure.
i) From the start (first word) of
each of twenty parts a sample of 500
words is taken. Thus twenty samples of
size 500 are obtained.
ii) The next sample of 700 words is
obtained from (351st) word of each part
.That is first 350 words are not taken in
second sample. Thus twenty samples,
of size 700 are obtained.
iii) The same procedure is
continued till each part is exhausted,
that is till less than 100 words
remained in each part. This procedure
gave rise to thirteen samples of
different sizes from each of twenty
parts.
Thus 13 * 20 = 260 samples of
different sizes are collected.
Statistical Analysis
A variable X is defined as
X = x: number of times a word
occurs.
f x = Number of words occurring x
times.
Xf x = Total number of words used in
the sample.
If,
S1 = ∑ x f x
S 2 = ∑ x2 f x
Yule's Characteristic is defined as,
K = 104 (S2/S12-1/S12)
The data is analysed by using Karl
Pearson’s coefficient of correlation &
graphs.
Application
 A bivariate coefficient of
correlation was obtained between
sample size and Yule’s Characteristic
K. The variables are defined as,
X = x: Sample size
and x = 500, 700, 900, . . . ,
2900.
Y = y: Yule's Characteristic K.
Then, the following results are
obtained
r xy = − 0.238206
which shows that the two variables
are certainly not independent of each
other.
This result is putting a question
mark on the result obtained by Yule,
that the Characteristic K is
independent of size of sample.
Further the result shows that the
two variables are negatively
correlated. That is as there is an
increase in the sample size the value
of the Characteristic K decreases.
Graphs G-1 and G-2 reveal a very
peculier Characteristic.
G-1 is a graph plotted for Yule’s K
against twenty samples of one size.
Each graphical line represents one
sample size. Thus for sample sizes 500
to 1900 there are six different lines
easily distinguishable or showing
enough dispersion among them.
That is for different sample sizes
ranging from 500 to 1900 Yule’s K is
not constant and shows quite
dispersed values.
Ellegard,(1962), stated that, that
sample containing at least 2000 words
is necessary for an accurate
calculation of Yule's K. Hence further
an attempt was made to find out
coefficient of correlation between
Yule's K and sample size above 2000,
which gave the following results,
rxy = zero
which shows that Yule's K is not
linearly dependent on sample of size
above 2000 words.
G-2 is the graph of the same
type for sample sizes ranging from
2100 to 2900 shows very little
dispersion in K. The five lines are not
easily distinguishable. Also the values
of K have come down or decreased
with increased sample size. Which
conforms with the result of negative
correlation.
We may say that for increased sample
sizes Yule’s K is constant. Rather if the
sample size is greater than 2000, then
Yule’s K may be independent of size of
sample.
Conclusion
i) Yule's K may not be independent of
sample size.
ii) Yule's K may remain constant for
samples above 2000 words.
Bibliography:
1) Dolezal Lubomir and Bailey Richard,
Statistics and style (1969) American
Elsevier publishing company INC, New York

2) Gustav Herdan, Quantitative Linguistics

(1964) Butterworth and Co. (Publishers)

3) Thomas Hardy, Tess Of D’Urbervillies,

Library Edition (1952) Mcmillan and Co.
Ltd., New York.

4) Yule G. Udny, The Statistical Study Of

Literary Vocabulary (1994), Cambridge
University Press.

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