08-18-2007, 05:31 PM | #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Happy Valley, PA
Posts: 1,866
|
Stylometric Analysis of Scripture
Can any of you stats folks figure this out?
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=096...3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z I could only handle the introduction and conclusions. If you would like a pdf of the entire article and don't have access to JSTOR, send me a Private Message with an e-mail address. Just make sure you observe "fair use" guidelines.
__________________
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) |
08-18-2007, 06:43 PM | #2 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,431
|
Quote:
If you are looking for a kind of summary of what he finds then look at figure 1. Can you see how the same author samples don't cluster together (for example, look at the Mormon samples)? The often cluster closer to other authors (except for the Joseph Smith writing samples).I think that may be the most important point he makes. There appears to be a fair amount of variation within author (as identified by the Book of Mormon). The within author variation looks at least as big as between author variation. (I think that study uses measures of vocabulary richness as compared to the early BYU stuff that looked at the frequency of non-contextual words). In summary, the original stuff said that Mormon and Nephi don't write the same, and basically this study says that Mormon doesn't write the same Mormon and the difference is as big as the Mormon/Nephi difference. Implications I think Mormons should be wary of relying on or turning to stylometric results for support of multiple authorship. At best the empirical evidence in favor of the result isn't robust, and probably should be described as mixed. Second, I can't for the life of me figure out why even if it is an ancient document one would expect there to be evidence of multiple authorship given what we know of the translation process . Also, I think you can construct reasonable hypotheses where it is a 19th century document and multiple authorship. I just don't see how a sharp hypothesis with regard to multiple authorship can be generated (either direction). Last edited by pelagius; 08-18-2007 at 06:54 PM. |
|
08-18-2007, 06:50 PM | #3 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Happy Valley, PA
Posts: 1,866
|
Quote:
I've come across stylometry in Classics with people trying to prove/disprove Aeschylean authorship of Prometheus Bound, but that was small potatoes compared to the algorithms in this article. I once heard Rick Majerus say something along the lines of, "Statistics are like bathing suits: they reveal a lot but conceal the most important parts." Is anyone familiar with this line of research?
__________________
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) |
|
08-18-2007, 06:58 PM | #4 |
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
That study is just a mid study and Pelagius has stated the general conclusions about stylometrics, namely they are interesting but are so far removed from proving much that emphasis on them has been mostly abandoned.
Another coined phrase for them is "wordprint", but stylometrics is the academic term. In the end, the style of this study and others could be considered, "Much Ado About Nothing."
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
08-18-2007, 07:12 PM | #5 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: NOVA
Posts: 3,005
|
I should be able to access this article from work on Monday. I'll look into it.
__________________
太初有道 |
08-18-2007, 07:31 PM | #6 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,431
|
Quote:
He then combines this measure with 4 other similar measures and then explores commonality using two different approaches: cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Are you asking for a comment on whether this approach is subjective? There some truth to that charge. The stylometrician has a fair amount of degrees of freedom in terms of the design of the test. Last edited by pelagius; 08-18-2007 at 08:03 PM. |
|
08-19-2007, 02:15 PM | #7 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Happy Valley, PA
Posts: 1,866
|
Quote:
__________________
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) |
|
08-19-2007, 03:47 PM | #8 | |
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Orgasmatron
Posts: 24,338
|
Quote:
__________________
Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα |
|
08-19-2007, 04:51 PM | #9 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,431
|
Quote:
I don't know the literature well enough give a sense for the advantages or disadvantage of various measures in general. The article does talk about these issues a little bit. I will say that I don't like the original stuff by BYU that relied on non-contextual word use patterns ("and it came to pass") because it seems likely that non-contextual word use is affected by translator choice or preference. However, I think stylometrics could be useful but I think one needs to have a pretty sharp hypothesis about how the different proposed authors wrote. I think in such a case the results could be quite compelling. |
|
Bookmarks |
|
|