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1 - Statistical Analysis and the Boundaries of the Genre of Old English Prayer
- Edited by Matthew Evan Davis, Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel, Ece Turnator
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- Book:
- Meeting the Medieval in a Digital World
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 02 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 31 October 2018, pp 11-26
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Summary
ONE OF THE most basic questions in literary analysis, the question of the genre of the text being examined, when applied to the study of Old English literature is also one of the most fraught. Though obviously many texts fall clearly into recognized categories, the corpus of Old English literature also contains many examples of texts that blur the lines between genres. The most obvious case is the line between poetry and prose in Old English, which remains the matter of much scholarly debate. Even within those larger genres, however, the boundaries of more specific textual categories can often be difficult to determine, raising hard questions about the way both individual texts and groups of texts may have been understood by Anglo-Saxon authors and readers.
Traditional methods of scholarship can offer some answers to those questions, of course. Textual details—the presence of poetic vocabulary and meter in an Old English poem, the use of traditional sermon structure and direct address to an audience in an Old English homily, for example—usually provide some suggestion as to the intended genre of Old English texts. Manuscript context often offers us further clues to the way an individual text may have been perceived. But especially in cases where such details are not clear, it may be useful to employ digital tools that can examine large groups of texts quickly and perhaps discern patterns and differences that would go unnoticed in a more traditional approach.
Michael Drout's work in statistical analysis of Old English poems, an approach that he has termed “lexomics,” has demonstrated the effectiveness of digital tools in detecting subtle divisions within an individual text as well as lines of influence between one text and another. By examining relative word frequency, Drout's algorithm has successfully recognized the internal division between Genesis A and Genesis B and identified the portion of the Old English poem Daniel that is related to the poem Azarias. Although lexomic methods have been used primarily to identify relationships of sections inside single texts, similar analysis of word frequency has long been used as well to help determine authorship of contested or anonymous works.
Contributors
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- By Graeme J.M. Alexander, Heung Bae Kim, Michael Burch, Andrew J. Butler, Tanveer Butt, Roy Calne, Edward Cantu, Robert B. Colvin, Paul Corris, Charles Crawley, Hiroshi Date, Francis L. Delmonico, Bimalangshu R. Dey, Kate Drummond, John Dunning, John D. Firth, John Forsythe, Simon M. Gabe, Robert S. Gaston, William Gelson, Paul Gibbs, Alex Gimson, Leo C. Ginns, Samuel Goldfarb, Ryoichi Goto, Walter K. Graham, Simon J.F. Harper, Koji Hashimoto, David G. Healy, Hassan N. Ibrahim, David Ip, Fadi G. Issa, Neville V. Jamieson, David P. Jenkins, Dixon B. Kaufman, Kiran K. Khush, Heung Bae Kim, Andrew A. Klein, John Klinck, Camille Nelson Kotton, Vineeta Kumar, Yael B. Kushner, D. Frank. P. Larkin, Clive J. Lewis, Yvonne H. Luo, Richard S. Luskin, Ernest I. Mandel, James F. Markmann, Lorna Marson, Arthur J. Matas, Mandeep R. Mehra, Stephen J. Middleton, Giorgina Mieli-Vergani, Charles Miller, Sharon Mulroy, Faruk Özalp, Can Ozturk, Jayan Parameshwar, J.S. Parmar, Hari K. Parthasarathy, Nick Pritchard, Cristiano Quintini, Axel O. Rahmel, Chris J. Rudge, Stephan V.B. Schueler, Maria Siemionow, Jacob Simmonds, Peter Slinger, Thomas R. Spitzer, Stuart C. Sweet, Nina E. Tolkoff-Rubin, Steven S.L. Tsui, Khashayar Vakili, R.V. Venkateswaran, Hector Vilca-Melendez, Vladimir Vinarsky, Kathryn J. Wood, Heidi Yeh, David W. Zaas, Jonathan G. Zaroff
- Edited by Andrew A. Klein, Clive J. Lewis, Joren C. Madsen
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- Book:
- Organ Transplantation
- Published online:
- 07 September 2011
- Print publication:
- 11 August 2011, pp vii-x
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Contributors
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- By Isabella Aboderin, W. Andrew Achenbaum, Katherine R. Allen, Toni C. Antonucci, Sara Arber, Claudine Attias‐Donfut, Paul B. Baltes, Sandhi Maria Barreto, Vern L. Bengtson, Simon Biggs, Joanna Bornat, Julie B. Boron, Mike Boulton, Clive E. Bowman, Marjolein Broese van Groenou, Edna Brown, Robert N. Butler, Bill Bytheway, Neena L. Chappell, Neil Charness, Kaare Christensen, Peter G. Coleman, Ingrid Arnet Connidis, Neal E. Cutler, Sara J. Czaja, Svein Olav Daatland, Lia Susana Daichman, Adam Davey, Bleddyn Davies, Freya Dittmann‐Kohli, Glen H. Elder, Carroll L. Estes, Mike Featherstone, Amy Fiske, Alexandra Freund, Daphna Gans, Linda K. George, Roseann Giarrusso, Chris Gilleard, Jay Ginn, Edlira Gjonça, Elena L. Grigorenko, Jaber F. Gubrium, Sarah Harper, Jutta Heckhausen, Akiko Hashimoto, Jon Hendricks, Mike Hepworth, Charlotte Ikels, James S. Jackson, Yuri Jang, Bernard Jeune, Malcolm L. Johnson, Randi S. Jones, Alexandre Kalache, Robert L. Kane, Rosalie A. Kane, Ingrid Keller, Rose Anne Kenny, Thomas B. L. Kirkwood, Kees Knipscheer, Martin Kohli, Gisela Labouvie‐Vief, Kristina Larsson, Shu‐Chen Li, Charles F. Longino, Ariela Lowenstein, Erick McCarthy, Gerald E. McClearn, Brendan McCormack, Elizabeth MacKinlay, Alfons Marcoen, Michael Marmot, Tom Margrain, Victor W. Marshall, Elizabeth A. Maylor, Ruud ter Meulen, Harry R. Moody, Robert A. Neimeyer, Demi Patsios, Margaret J. Penning, Stephen A. Petrill, Chris Phillipson, Leonard W. Poon, Norella M. Putney, Jill Quadagno, Pat Rabbitt, Jennifer Reid Keene, Sandra G. Reynolds, Steven R. Sabat, Clive Seale, Merril Silverstein, Hannes B. Staehelin, Ursula M. Staudinger, Robert J. Sternberg, Debra Street, Philip Taylor, Fleur Thomése, Mats Thorslund, Jinzhou Tian, Theo van Tilburg, Fernando M. Torres‐Gil, Josy Ubachs‐Moust, Christina Victor, K. Warner Shaie, Anthony M. Warnes, James L. Werth, Sherry L. Willis, François‐Charles Wolff, Bob Woods
- Edited by Malcolm L. Johnson, University of Bristol
- Edited in association with Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California, Peter G. Coleman, University of Southampton, Thomas B. L. Kirkwood, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing
- Published online:
- 05 June 2016
- Print publication:
- 01 December 2005, pp xii-xvi
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