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Authoritative: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0895-7177(94)90096-5   (Publisher's PDF... likely be available here.)

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Abstract

This paper presents the finding that the invocation of new words in human language samples is governed by a slowly changing Poisson process. The time dependent rate constant for this process has the form [small lambda, Greek(t)...]. This form implies that there are opening, middle and final phases to the introduction of new words, each distinguished by a dominant rate constant, or equivalently, rate of decay. With the occasional exception of the phase transition from beginning to middle, the rate small lambda, Greek(t) decays monotonically. Thus, small lambda, Greek(t) quantifies how the penchant of humans to introduce new words declines with the progression of their narratives, written or spoken.

Keywords: Word analysis; Stochastic model; Evolutionary process; Rate constants; Poisson

@article{Badalamenti94poissonEvolution,
  author={A. F. Badalamenti and R. Langs and G. Cramer and J. Robinson},
  title={Poisson evolution in word selection},
  journal={Mathematical and Computer Modelling},
  year={1994},
  month={June},
  volume={19},
  number={12},
  pages={27-36},
  doi={10.1016/0895-7177(94)90096-5},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/Badalamenti94poissonEvolution.html},
  keywords={Word analysis; Stochastic model; Evolutionary process; Rate constants; Poisson}
}