Recent Advances in Computational Linguistics and their Application to Biblical Studies

Abstract

This article focuses on novel computer-based techniques for style characterization which have been tested on NT texts. The techniques are derived from the fields of information theory, communications engineering, and bioinformatics, and treat text as linearly sequenced information. They employ computer algorithms capable of detecting patterns in character strings, thereby permitting characterization of a given text or comparison of various texts. The application of the techniques to NT books has so far yielded results generally concordant with other methods, and suggest that the new techniques, if further refined, could complement other approaches to Biblical-textual questions.

Hellenistic Greek and the New Testament: A Stylometric Perspective

“…As content words are more likely to be attributable to the conscious choice of the authors, and to vary with subject matter, there is good reason to prefer function words (Holmes 1998: 113-14). Some recent work reported by J. José Alviar (2008) has also used patterns of repetition of character strings* (i.e. sequences of letters such as ‘in the’) or distances between repetitions of words used more than once in a text.…”

“… 3. He does not give a specific example, but presumably one would be the count of the average number of words (or letters) between successive instances of καί in Mark. The article by Alviar (2008) does offer a very informative report on work using data compression methods based on information theory. One line used PPM (prediction by partial match) checking successive sequences of characters (letters, spaces etc.)…”

Cluster analysis

“…Shaw's 1974 work on dialectal boundaries) to linguistics, where it has now been used to describe a wide range of linguistic phenomena (see references elsewhere in this volume). It is also reaching beyond linguistics into other Arts and Humanities disciplines, aiding, for example, in the classification of texts according to relevant dimensions (see Alviar 2008 for the application of cluster analysis in the style characterization of New Testament texts).…”

Automated Authorship Attribution Using Advanced Signal Classification Techniques

“…In 1851, the mathematician Augustus de Morgan tried to determine the authorship of the Letter to the Hebrews , in the New Testament , by measuring word lengths. Since de Morgan's seminal work, many other methods have been developed [7]–[9]. In 1964, the first computer-assisted studies – as opposed to manual based methods – were performed by Mosteller and Wallace to investigate the authorship of the Federalist Papers [10].…”