  A nonlinear dynamics approach can be used in order to quantify complexity in
written texts. As a first step, a one-dimensional system is examined : two
written texts by one author (Lewis Carroll) are considered, together with one
translation, into an artificial language, i.e. Esperanto are mapped into time
series. Their corresponding shuffled versions are used for obtaining a "base
line". Two different one-dimensional time series are used here: (i) one based
on word lengths (LTS), (ii) the other on word frequencies (FTS). It is shown
that the generalized Hurst exponent $h(q)$ and the derived $f(\alpha)$ curves
of the original and translated texts show marked differences. The original
"texts" are far from giving a parabolic $f(\alpha)$ function, - in contrast to
the shuffled texts. Moreover, the Esperanto text has more extreme values. This
suggests cascade model-like, with multiscale time asymmetric features as
finally written texts. A discussion of the difference and complementarity of
mapping into a LTS or FTS is presented. The FTS $f(\alpha)$ curves are more
opened than the LTS ones

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability;Statistical Mechanics;Pattern Formation and Solitons;Physics and Society