Frame

Terms named here are defined in review.md; works are listed in the bibliography.

The problem in one sentence

How much information should each unit of a text carry, how deeply may units nest, and how far apart may related units sit, so that a reader spends the least effort for the most understanding?

One problem, five scales

Scale	Unit	Density	Depth	Locality
1. Information rate	word	surprisal per word
2. Sentence locality	dependency			head-to-dependent distance
3. Nesting	clause		center-embedding degree
4. Text	proposition	propositions per word		argument overlap across sentences
5. Text tree	idea unit, section		level in the hierarchy	link between distant sections
Ordering	concept			definition-to-use distance

What the field calls it

Scale	Field name	Acronym	Seminal authors	Also called
1	surprisal theory; uniform information density; entropy rate constancy	UID, ERC	Hale; Levy; Jaeger; Genzel & Charniak	predictability effect, linking function, information density
2	dependency locality theory; dependency length minimization; depth hypothesis	DLT, SPLT, DLM, DDm	Gibson; Futrell; Temperley & Gildea; Ferrer-i-Cancho; Yngve	dependency distance, integration cost, Yngve depth
3	center-embedding; self-embedding; structural forgetting	none	Miller & Chomsky; Karlsson; Gibson & Thomas	missing-VP illusion, grammaticality illusion
4	propositional text base; construction-integration; given-new strategy	CI	Kintsch; van Dijk; Haviland & Clark	idea density, argument overlap, referential cohesion, reinstatement search, bridging inference
5	levels effect; rhetorical structure theory; centering; entity grid	RST	Meyer; Mann & Thompson; Grosz, Joshi & Weinstein; Barzilay & Lapata	content structure, macrostructure, local coherence
Reader	reverse cohesion effect; expertise reversal effect	none	McNamara; Kalyuga	prior knowledge by text interaction
Ordering	minimum linear arrangement; optimal linear ordering; weighted completion-time scheduling	MinLA, MLA, 1\|prec\|ΣwC	Garey, Johnson & Stockmeyer; Shiloach; Chung; Adolphson & Hu; Lawler	graph layout, linear layout
Measurement	automated text analysis; readability formulas	Coh-Metrix, TAACO, FRE	Graesser; McNamara; Crossley; Flesch	text difficulty, cohesion indices

What practitioners call it

Practitioners say	Field says	Scale
plain language, plain English	text comprehensibility, readability	4, 5
short sentences, one idea per sentence	idea density, propositions per sentence	1, 4
reading age, grade level, Flesch score	readability formula (FRE, FKGL)	measurement
avoid legalese, passives, nominalisations	center-embedding, dependency length, rare words	2, 3
readability grade check (Vale, Hemingway, textstat)	automated readability formula	measurement

• Martinez et al. 2022 joins the two vocabularies: legalese measured as center-embedding, rare words, passives and non-standard capitalisation.

Search log: each term three ways

Term	Academic name	Acronym	Author	Outcome
UID	"uniform information density"	UID	Jaeger, Meister	rich; led to Meister et al. 2021 and Tsipidi et al. 2024
ERC	"entropy rate constancy"	ERC	Genzel	one arXiv hit, the failed replication Verma et al. 2023
Linking function	"linear" vs "logarithmic" predictability	none	Smith, Levy, Brothers	led to the replication Buggy et al. 2026
DLT	"dependency locality theory"	DLT	Gibson	seminal plus tests Grodner & Gibson 2005, Demberg & Keller 2008
DLM	"dependency length minimization"	DLM, DDm	Futrell, Ferrer-i-Cancho	corpus studies and the baseline dispute
Center-embedding	"multiple center-embedding"	none	Karlsson	corpus count; processing studies found separately
CI	"construction-integration"	CI	Kintsch	model, revisions, reverse cohesion effect
RST, centering	"rhetorical structure theory", "centering"	RST	Mann, Grosz	theory plus corpus test Poesio et al. 2004
MinLA	"minimum linear arrangement"	MinLA, MLA	Shiloach, Chung	complexity results and the graph layout survey
Ordered variant	"precedence-constrained linear arrangement"	none	none	zero exact hits: the query was wrong
Ordered variant, renamed	"optimal linear ordering"; "weighted completion time" with precedence	1\|prec\|ΣwC	Adolphson & Hu; Lawler	found: the ordered variant is single-machine weighted completion time with precedence, shown for trees by Adolphson & Hu 1973 section 4 and for directed graphs by Lawler 1978
Readability	"readability formula"	FRE, FKGL	Flesch, Crossley	formula and critiques

Scope

• In: comprehension cost and memory for written text by adult readers; corpus regularities of writing; tools that measure them.
• Out: typography, layout and visual design.
• Lower priority: language models as readers (one entry in position.md).