Linguistic Fingerprints and Literary Fraud [1998, rptd. 2008]
Vina Tirvengadum · Digital Studies / Le champ numérique · 1996
This paper examines the premise that style is dictated by the subconscious and forms the genetic fingerprint of a writer's work. Using statistical analysis on vocabulary distribution, it looks at (a) high frequency words and (b) pairs of synonyms as style discriminants in order to analyse the pseudonymous works of Romain Gary / mile Ajar. Statistical tests (Student's t -test, Pearson Correlation and Chi-squared tests) show that Gary adopted a different style (a different fingerprint) when he wrote his second Ajar novel, La Vie devant soi . The results would therefore seem to dispute the idea that certain elements of style (such as the use of high frequency words) are not under the writer's control.