Emmerich Kelih

Quantitative Text Typology: The Impact of Word Length

The present study aims at the quantitative classification of texts and text types. By way of a case study, 398 Slovenian texts from different genres and authors are analyzed as to their word length. It is shown that word length is an important factor in the synergetic self-regulation of texts and text types, and that word length may significantly contribute to a new typology of discourse types.2

Classification of Author and/or Genre? The Impact of Word Length

190 Russian texts — letters and poems by three different authors — are analyzed as to their word length. The basic question concerns the quantitative classification of these texts as to authorship or as to text sort. By way of multivariate analyses it is shown that word length is a characteristic of genre, rather than of authorship.3

Quantitative Text Typology: The Impact of Sentence Length

This study focuses on the contribution of sentence length for a quantitative text typology. Therefore, 333 Slovenian texts are analyzed with regard to their sentence length. By way of multivariate discriminant analyses (M D A) it is shown that indeed, a text typology is possible, based on sentence length, only; this typology, however, does not coincide with traditional text classifications, such as, e.g., text sorts or functional style. Rather, a new categorization into specific discourse types seems reaonable.

The Relationship of Word Length and Sentence Length: The Inter-Textual Perspective

The present study concentrates on the relation between sentence length (SL) and word length (WL) as a possible factor in text classification. The dependence of WL and SL is discussed in terms of general system theory and synergetics; the results achieved thus are relevant not only for linguistic studies of text classification, but for the study of other complex systems, as well.

Word Length and Frequency Distributions in Different Text Genres

In this paper we study word length frequency distributions of a systematic selection of 80 Slovenian texts (private letters, journalistic texts, poems and cooking recipes). The adequacy of four two-parametric Poisson models is analyzed according their goodness of fit properties, and the corresponding model parameter ranges are checked for their suitability to discriminate the text sorts given. As a result we obtain that the Singh-Poisson distribution seems to be the best choice for both problems: first, it is an appropriate model for three of the text sorts (private letters, journalistic texts and poems); and second, the parameter space of the model can be split into regions constituting all four text sorts.

Systematic Interrelations Between Grapheme Frequencies and Word Length: Empirical Evidence from Slovene*

Abstract This paper focuses on the question whether grapheme frequencies are in a direct relationship to word length. In other words, a possible interrelation between the frequency of graphemes and the length of linguistic units is discussed. Based on different Slovene text types it is shown that the Altmann-Menzerath law is an adequate theoretical explanation for the supposed interrelation between grapheme frequencies and the word length. Furthermore a linguistic interpretation of parameters of grapheme frequency models is offered.

A Data-based Classification of Slavic Languages: Indices of Qualitative Variation Applied to Grapheme Frequencies

Abstract The Ord graph is a simple graphical method for displaying frequency distributions of data or theoretical distributions in the two-dimensional plane. Its coordinates are proportions of the first three moments, either empirical or theoretical. A modification of the Ord graph based on proportions of indices of qualitative variation is presented. Such a modification makes the graph applicable also to categorical data. In addition, the indices are normalized with values between 0 and 1, which enables comparison of data files divided into different numbers of categories. Both the original and the new graph are used to display grapheme frequencies in eleven Slavic languages. As the original Ord graph requires an assignment of numbers to the categories, graphemes are ordered by decreasing frequency. Data are taken from parallel corpora; in the present instance these are grapheme frequencies from a Russian novel and its translations into ten other Slavic languages. Cluster analysis is then applied to the graph coordinates. While the original graph yields results which are not linguistically interpretable, its modification reveals meaningful relations among the languages.

The Lambda-structure of Texts. Ioan-Iovitz Popescu, Radek Čech, and Gabriel Altmann.

reactivation on the past–present axis, or, in Doruff’s contribution, in the (translocal) event itself. While Auslander discusses recorded performance, and Doruff refers to improvised music, in both cases the interface channels and filters the distribution of affective intensities. Interfaces of Performance is a book worth reading. Fortunately, developments in the field of performance do not live up to the speed of technological innovations; despite the publication date (2009) the essays have not lost their relevance. A few critical remarks are in place though. The book argues for new paradigms but fails to include some of the paradigms that are already there. Apart from a small hint, Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory is remarkably absent, as is John McKenzie’s theory on technological and organizational performance, introduced in Perform or Else (Routledge, 2001). The discourse on intermediality in performance is hardly referenced, part of which explicitly addresses the redistributive qualities of in-between zones, and Steve Dixon and Gabriella Giannachi deserve more than sideline appearances in commentaries. Next, the argument for creative theory is of course valid, however, I find some of the explicitly creative contributions to have far less ‘interfacing’ potential than the perhaps more conventional essays. But all in all Interfaces of Performance is a rich collection, full of stimulating ideas. Although theatre and performance often appear to be on the marginal side of contemporary society, this collection proves that performative practices are precisely the platforms for critical and playful explorations of how (digital) technology stages and transforms perception and understanding. This potential materializes in what Primavesi names a strategy of exposure, in his discussion of Gob Squad, a company that often hinges on the imperfection and failure of technology, in order to make room for cooperative experimentation. It is also a strategy of moving beyond the spectacle of society and simulacra, as Maria X and Matt Adams jointly observe in their inspiring dialogue; of carrying out virtual experiences into the real. While interfacing with digital identities and technologically enhanced environments, it turns out that it is (still) the potential of the lived experience to investigate and invest in our modes of engagement with the world.

Ein empirischer Regelkreis: Graphemhäufigkeiten in slawischen Sprachen

Die Haufigkeit sprachlicher Einheiten ist keine isolierte Eigenschaft, sondern interagiert mit anderen Grosen und Ebenen. Ausgangspunkt unserer Uberlegungen ist, dass eine Sprache in der Regel ein aufgrund von linguistischen Kriterien abgegrenztes Inventar von konstituierenden Einheiten (Graphemen, Phonemen) hat. Ein derartiges Inventar von Einheiten (Inventarumfang) ist eine zentrale steuernde Grose der paradigmatischen und syntagmatischen Ebene. Auf die konkrete Auspragung eines Inventarumfanges konnen unterschiedliche Systembedurfnisse wirken, die in Anlehnung an Kohler (2005) in drei Gruppen aufzuteilen sind: 1. sprachkonstituierende, 2. sprachformende Bedurfnisse und 3. Systembedurfnisse der allgemeinen Steuerung. Zu beginnen ist mit allgemeinen sprachkonstituierenden Bedurfnissen: Ein allgemeines Kodierungsbedurfnis bewirkt, dass zu einem zu kommunizierenden Inhalt eine bestimmte Form des Ausdruckes gesucht wird. Zu diesem Zweck steht ein Inventar von sprachlichen Einheiten, wie Grapheme, Morpheme, Silben, Wortformen usw. zur Verfugung. Aufgrund eines inharenten Anwendungsbedurfnisses kommen bestimmte Ausdrucksmittel zur Anwendung, womit diese je nach Kommunikationssituation in einer unterschiedlichen Haufigkeit realisiert werden. Damit wird die Haufigkeit (Frequenz) zu einem zentralen Merkmal eines Kommunikationsmodells, das durch weitere Bedurfnisse, wie Sicherheit der Informationsubertragung, die Lange der zu ubertragenden Einheiten usw. geformt wird. Die Graphemhaufigkeit ist ein selbstreguliertes Ganzes, auf welches folgende Einflusse und Bedurfnisse geltend gemacht werden konnen: 1. Der Ausdruck eines sowohl dem Sprecher als auch Horer verstandlichen semantischen Potentials, der durch die in einer Sprache zur Verfugung stehenden semantisch-lexikalischen Einheiten einer Sprache ausgedruckt wird. 2. Weiteres Bedurfnis ist eine „korrekte“ grammatikalisch-syntaktische Anordnung der Lexeme, die dergestalt sein muss, dass sie sowohl dem Horer als auch dem Sprecher zuganglich und verstandlich sind.

Reversibilität von Paarformeln und Binomialen: Methodologische Aspekte

Abstract In the paper two statistical methods are presented for the analysis of the reversibility of the component order in binomials (conjoined expressions, freezes). Based on the frequency of binomials, occurring in variable component order, a binomial test and an asymptotic test is applied to give statistical evidence of the significance of the reversibility. By the means of these two tests in a sample of Slovene binomials the group of conditionally irreversible binomials is obtained.