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Stylistic Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

P. Harvey
P. Harvey*
Affiliation:
Lincoln College of Technology, Lincoln
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Extract

A recent and fascinating application of statistics has been that of analysing the distribution of words in a written document in an attempt to determine the authorship. This article reviews some of the methods used and proposes a simplified test that could be performed using a desk calculator, although access to a digital computer would reduce the work required. An example of the test applied to a manuscript in the British Museum (Stowe 269) is given in detail to illustrate the method.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 54 , Issue 390 , December 1970 , pp. 361 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1970

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References

References

Sherman, A., Analytics of Literature (Boston, 1893).Google Scholar
Yule, G. U., On sentence lengths as a statistical characteristic of style in prose (Biometrica xxx, 1939, pp. 363–390).Google Scholar
Williams, C. B., A note on the statistical analysis of sentence length (Biometrica xxxi, 1939, pp. 356–361).Google Scholar
Yule, G. U., The Statistical Study of Literary Vocabulary (Cambridge, 1944).Google Scholar
Guiraud, P., Les Charactères Statistiques du Vocabulaire (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar
Herdan, G., Language as Choice and Chance (Groningen, 1956).Google Scholar
Wake, W. C., Sentence length distributions of Greek authors (Jour. Royal Stat. Soc, ser. A, 1957, pp. 331–346).Google Scholar
Herdan1, G., Type-Token Mathematics, a Text Book of Mathematical Linguistics (The Hague, 1960).Google Scholar
Ellegard, A., A Statistical Method for Determining Authorship (Gothenburg Studies in English, 13, 1962).Google Scholar
Mosteller, F. & Wallace, D. L., Inference in an authorship problem (Jour. Am. Stat. Assn., no. 302, vol. 58, pp. 273–309).Google Scholar
Brown, M. P., The Authentic Writings of Ignatius (Duke, 1963).Google Scholar
Morton, A. Q., The Authorship of Greek Prose (Jour. Boyal Stat. Soc, ser. A, 1965, pp. 169–233).Google Scholar

References to the documents used in the analysis.

1. The Work of William Tyndale, ed. Duffield, G. E., Sutton Courtenay Press, 1964, pp. 324–337.Google Scholar
2. Ib., pp. 315–322.Google Scholar
3. Essays on the Reformation in England, Maitland, S. R., London, 1849, pp. 6–11.Google Scholar
4. For the difficulty over Barlow’s name, and whether he was one or two people, see Rupp, E. G., Studies in the Making of the English Protestant Tradition, Cambridge, 1947, pp. 62–72.Google Scholar
5. Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments (ed. cit.), iv, pp. 671–676.Google Scholar
6. Arber edn. as cited above.Google Scholar
7. Ed.Lunn, J. R., 1897, pp. 29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar