A STUDY OF AFFINITIES AMONG GERMAN LANGUAGES BY MEANS OF THE MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
Negro Pertile · 2016
The applications of multivariate analysis to the humanities up to 1973 are limited essentially to establish the controverse paternity of a literary work and secondarily the literary style of some passes of a given author, problems more of identification than of classification (Sneath & Sokal 1973, p. 449). One of the present authors (G. M.) has applied many years ago (not published data) the information theory to establish the controverse paternity of a pass of Aristotle's Zoology (chapter 28, Liber VIII) attributed to this author or to Theophrast. No definitive conclusion was however possible, in consideration of the great difference existing even among a single author (zoology and metaphysics, respectively). Meier-Ewert & Gibbs (1970) demonstrated by cluster analysis the great sen sitivity of doublets of letters, distinguishing not only different languages (as it m well known) but, less expectedly, different authors using the same language. Blackith (1963) has been able to isolate several components of style that appear to be reliable indicators of authorships. He has been able even to show by means of multivariate analysis the effects mental stress has on style in the same author (Ovid). Multivariate analysis has been applied also to Plato (Cox & Brandwood, 1959, quoted by Blackith). Herdan, with quantitative methods has evidentiated in style and richness of German language the negative effects Nazism has had on this language. Finally, Buechley (1967) has applied cluster analysis to family names in different geographic localities in Spain. Nothing has been done in this field to discriminate German languages. We have decided to apply a coefficient of distance, and more precisely the taxonomic distance expressed by means of a class of metric distance functions (the Minkowski metrics), n