Language change in report on the work of the government by premiers of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The present paper explored the focusing topics change and language change in Report on the Work of the Government by Premiers of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter Report texts). The text clustering and correspondence analysis showed the focusing topics change in selected three periods Report texts. The Report texts were represented by the clause length distribution and clustered. The clustering result showed the differences of clause length usages in the Report texts. The relationship between clause length and word length was studied. The average word length decreases with clause length and were fitted using the function, 𝑦 = 𝑎𝑥 𝑏 based on the Menzerath-Altmann Law. The relationship between the three periods Report texts represented by the fitted parameters, a and b, were explored.