Corominas Murtra, BernatSànchez Fibla, MartíValverde, SergiSolé Vicente, Ricard, 1962-2019-04-052019-04-052018Corominas-Murtra B, Sànchez Fibla M, Valverde S, Solé R. Chromatic transitions in the emergence of syntax networks. R Soc Open Sci. 2018;5(12):181286. DOI 10.1098/rsos.1812862054-5703http://hdl.handle.net/10230/37047The emergence of syntax during childhood is a remarkable example of how complex correlations unfold in nonlinear ways through development. In particular, rapid transitions seem to occur as children reach the age of two, which seems to separate a two-word, tree-like network of syntactic relations among words from the scale-free graphs associated with the adult, complex grammar. Here, we explore the evolution of syntax networks through language acquisition using the chromatic number, which captures the transition and provides a natural link to standard theories on syntactic structures. The data analysis is compared to a null model of network growth dynamics which is shown to display non-trivial and sensible differences. At a more general level, we observe that the chromatic classes define independent regions of the graph, and thus, can be interpreted as the footprints of incompatibility relations, somewhat as opposed to modularity considerations.application/pdfeng© 2018 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181286Complex networksModularityGraph colouringSyntaxinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess