THE COMPLEXITY OF GENETIC CONCEPTS AND NETWORKS IN PHILOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

The article examines new approaches to the study of the complexity of linguistic phenomena from the standpoint of genetics and the theory of complex systems. The relevance of the topic is due to the need for interdisciplinary synthesis for an in-depth understanding of the nature and evolution of language. The aim of the work is to identify the heuristic potential of genetic concepts and network models in philological research. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive methodology is used, including conceptual analysis, comparative method, corpus analysis of texts, as well as elements of graph theory and network modeling. The empirical base includes English and Russian-language texts of various genres (about 1 million word uses in total). It is shown that the concepts of gene networks and regulatory switches can be productively extrapolated to the study of language. Network models of semantic fields are constructed, the most important nodes-concepts regulating the functioning of the entire system are identified. It is demonstrated that the complexity of a language is largely determined by the interaction of a limited number of basic elements. The results of the study open up new prospects for the interdisciplinary synthesis of philology, genetics and complexity theory. The developed models and methods have significant explanatory and predictive potential. It is planned to further develop the topic based on the material of other languages using machine learning methods.