Creativity and Universality in Language

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This book compiles research on quantitative methods to analyze originality and universality in language. Aimed at researchers and experts, it also serves graduate students. Creativity is viewed as a morphogenetic process that merges universal traits with originality. Quantitative techniques applied to text and music uncover universal aspects, while originality remains a valued characteristic of authors, composers, and performers. Traditional methods addressing authorship attribution and document classification offer insights into quantifying unique features of styles and creators, which are often constrained by universal signatures like scaling laws in word-frequency distribution, entropy measures, and long-range correlations. The relationship between innovation and universality is crucial for automatic text generation. Language innovation gains significance when adopted and disseminated among speakers and musicians. Modern digital databases facilitate the characterization and modeling of linguistic innovations over historical timelines, addressing the broader issue of innovation spread in complex social systems. This multidisciplinary work brings together scientists from diverse fields focused on the quantitative analysis of variations in language and music, aiming to deepen the understanding of how originality arises, can be measured, and propagates.