George Kingsley Zipf | |
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![]() 1917 photograph from the 1919 Annual of the Freeport High School, Freeport, Illinois | |
Born | |
Died | September 25, 1950 | (aged 48)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Harvard College |
Known for | Zipf's law |
Spouse | Joyce Waters Brown Zipf |
Children | Robert Zipf, Katherine Sandstrom, Joyce Harrington, Henry Zipf |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Statistics, linguistics |
George Kingsley Zipf (/ˈzɪf/ ZIFF;[1] January 7, 1902 – September 25, 1950), was an American linguist and philologist who studied statistical occurrences in different languages.[2]
Zipf earned his bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, although he also studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin.[2] He was chairman of the German department and university lecturer (meaning he could teach any subject he chose) at Harvard University.[2] He worked with Chinese and demographics, and much of his effort can explain properties of the Internet, distribution of income within nations, and many other collections of data.[3]