The computer and Plato's Seventh letter
- Book ID
- 104628791
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1967
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 132 KB
- Volume
- 1
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0010-4817
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
Stylometric analysis is, of course, a traditional weapon in the armoury of the classical scholar since the time of Lutoslawski about a century ago. But as one examines the work of the stylometric analysts one is impressed with their dependence on conscious choice of words, verbal resemblances, lists of unusual words, etc. The computer now makes possible a new approach. It seems that every writer has a pattern of unconscious choices of words, and by a study of these unconscious choices, decisions can be made as to genuineness and homogeneity of the work of a given author. These tests emphasize small words which seem to present an astounding uniformity. This is no longer an assumption. It has been demonstrated of many authors of Greek prose literature. The tests deal with such words as kai ('and'), de ('and' or 'but'), the verb 'to be,' the personal pronouns, etc. Eight such tests altogether have been devised and applied as circumstances seemed to demand. Sentence length has proved to be a most sensitive indicator, particularly for the chronology of an author's writings.
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