Goldsmiths Periodical Essays: A Statistical Analysis of Eleven Doubtful Cases
Peter Dixon · Literary and Linguistic Computing · 1993
Over 100 periodical essays have been posthumously attributed to Goldsmith. Here, we subject eleven of them to the statistical techniques of principal components analysis, correspondence analysis. A large number of stylistic features are identified which appear to have good discriminatory value, and scores on these are used as the raw data. Comparisons are made with authentic Goldsmith material and four other control authors. There is powerful evidence for ascribing one of the eleven essays to Glodsmith, and theree further essays emerge as reasonable claimants; in four cases the evidence in favour of Goldsmith is very weak indeed.