RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Petrík, Daniel
T1 
JF Romanica Olomucensia
YR 2011
VO 23
IS 2
SP 137
OP 146
DO 10.5507/ro.2011.018
UL https://romanica.upol.cz/artkey/rom-201102-0004.php
AB Zipf's Laws are rules that describe the distribution of words in the text by their frequency, the number of different meanings and other features. Its author, Harvard professor George Kingsley Zipf (1902-1950), while studying natural languages  mentioned the so-called Principle of least effort, which means that the language is focused on the economy and clarity. The principle has an impact on how the speaker unconsciously choose the terms by which he expresses his ideas (for example, the mostly used words are usually the shortest and with multiple meanings, etc.). Zipf's Laws are valid in any natural language and even in other natural systems; however, we must take into account the individual features of each language. In Spanish texts, for example, is necessary to deal with a higher frequency of determinants and prepositions. These and other peculiarities of its implementation are discussed in this paper.