Repetition Characteristic for Single Texts

Abstract

The repetition characteristic v(t) introduced by F. Golcher is calculated for single natural texts in different languages and random Miller’s monkey texts. It is shown that the saturated v(t) value v0 obtained at the largest times t is not governed by single-character information entropy and parameter of semantic load of a text. The parameter v0 manifests intra-language variations comparable with inter-language ones. In a slightly modified calculation regime, it provides a powerful tool for detecting even small repeated textual fragments.