# Multifractal hopscotch in "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12955 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12955/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [Role-Play with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16367/) (2023)
- [Complex systems approach to natural language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.02772/) (2024)
- [In narrative texts punctuation marks obey the same statistics as words](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.00834/) (2016)
- [Linguistic data mining with complex networks: a stylometric-oriented approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.05439/) (2018)
- [Universal versus system-specific features of punctuation usage patterns in~major Western~languages](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.11182/) (2022)
- [Ordinal analysis of lexical patterns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.11175/) (2022)
- [Statistics of punctuation in experimental literature -- the remarkable case of "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00483/) (2024)
- [Predicting language diversity with complex network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.08359/) (2017)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Quantifying patterns of punctuation in modern Chinese prose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04449/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Punctuation is the main factor introducing correlations in natural language written texts and it crucially impacts their overall effectiveness, expressiveness, and readability. Punctuation marks at the end of sentences are of particular importance as their distribution can determine various complexity features of written natural language. Here, the sentence length variability (SLV) time series representing "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortazar are subjected to quantitative analysis with an attempt to identify their distribution type, long-memory effects, and potential multiscale patterns. The analyzed novel is an important and innovative piece of literature whose essential property is freedom of movement between its building blocks given to a reader by the author. The statistical consequences of this freedom are closely investigated in both the original, Spanish version of the novel, and its translations into English and Polish. Clear evidence of rich multifractality in the SLV dynamics, with a left-sided asymmetry, however, is observed in all three language versions as well as in the versions with differently ordered chapters.