A note on a class of skew distribution functions: Analysis and critique of a paper by H. A. Simon

Abstract

This note is a discussion of H. A. Simon's model (1955) concerning the class of frequency distributions generally associated with the name of G. K. Zipf. The main purpose is to show that Simon's model is analytically circular in the case of the linguistic laws of Estoup-Zipf and Willis-Yule. Insofar as the economic law of Pareto is concerned, Simon has himself noted that his model is a particular case of that of Champernowne; this is correct, with some reservation. A simplified version of Simon's model is included. © 1959 Academic Press Inc.