Bayesian Analysis of a Multinomial Sequence and Homogeneity of Literary Style

To help settle the debate around the authorship of Tirant lo Blanc, all words in each chapter are categorized according to their length, and the appearances of certain words are counted, thus forming two contingency tables of ordered rows. A Bayesian multinomial change-point analysis of the sequence...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American statistician 2005-02, Vol.59 (1), p.19-30
Main Authors: Girón, Javier, Ginebra, Josep, Riba, Alex
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Analytical estimating
Applied statistics
Authorship
Authorship attribution
Bayesian analysis
Cluster analysis
Contingency tables
Discriminant analysis
Exact sciences and technology
General topics
Gibbs sampler
Hypotheses
Inference
Literary style
Literature
Markov chains
Martorell, Joanot
Mathematics
Multinomial change-point
Multinomial cluster analysis
Multivariate analysis
Probability and statistics
Sciences and techniques of general use
Source studies
Statistical analysis
Statistical data
Statistics
Stylistics
Stylometry
Word length
Writers
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Summary:To help settle the debate around the authorship of Tirant lo Blanc, all words in each chapter are categorized according to their length, and the appearances of certain words are counted, thus forming two contingency tables of ordered rows. A Bayesian multinomial change-point analysis of the sequence of rows, reveals a clear stylistic boundary, estimated to be near chapters 371 and 382. A Bayesian cluster analysis of these rows confirms the existence of that boundary, and reveals a few chapters that are misclassified by the estimated change-point. The statistical evidence supports the hypotheses of one main author writing about four fifths of the book, with a second author finishing the book by filling in material, mainly at the end of it.
ISSN:0003-1305
1537-2731
DOI:10.1198/000313005X21311