A new method of statistical analysis of texts is suggested. The frequency distribution of the first significant digits in numerals of connected authorial English-language texts is considered. Benford's law is found to hold approximately for these frequencies with a marked predominance of the digit 1. Deviations from Benford's law are statistically significant author peculiarities that allow, under certain conditions, to consider the problem of authorship and distinguish between texts by different authors. At the end of {1, 2,…, 8, 9} row, the digits distribution is subject to strong fluctuations and thus unrepresentative for our purpose. The approach suggested and the conclusions are backed by the examples of the computer analysis of works by W. M. Thackeray, M. Twain, R. L. Stevenson et al. The results are confirmed on the basis of non-parametric range Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests as well as the parametric Pearson's chi-squared test.
| Published in | International Journal on Data Science and Technology (Volume 3, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11 |
| Page(s) | 16-23 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Benford’s Law, Statistic of Numerals, Text Attribution, Text Processing, English-Language Fiction, Mann-Whitney U Test, Pearson's Chi-Squared Test
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APA Style
Andrei Viacheslavovich Zenkov, Larisa Anatolievna Sazanova. (2017). A New Stylometry Method Basing on the Numerals Statistic. International Journal on Data Science and Technology, 3(2), 16-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
ACS Style
Andrei Viacheslavovich Zenkov; Larisa Anatolievna Sazanova. A New Stylometry Method Basing on the Numerals Statistic. Int. J. Data Sci. Technol. 2017, 3(2), 16-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
AMA Style
Andrei Viacheslavovich Zenkov, Larisa Anatolievna Sazanova. A New Stylometry Method Basing on the Numerals Statistic. Int J Data Sci Technol. 2017;3(2):16-23. doi: 10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11,
author = {Andrei Viacheslavovich Zenkov and Larisa Anatolievna Sazanova},
title = {A New Stylometry Method Basing on the Numerals Statistic},
journal = {International Journal on Data Science and Technology},
volume = {3},
number = {2},
pages = {16-23},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijdst.20170302.11},
abstract = {A new method of statistical analysis of texts is suggested. The frequency distribution of the first significant digits in numerals of connected authorial English-language texts is considered. Benford's law is found to hold approximately for these frequencies with a marked predominance of the digit 1. Deviations from Benford's law are statistically significant author peculiarities that allow, under certain conditions, to consider the problem of authorship and distinguish between texts by different authors. At the end of {1, 2,…, 8, 9} row, the digits distribution is subject to strong fluctuations and thus unrepresentative for our purpose. The approach suggested and the conclusions are backed by the examples of the computer analysis of works by W. M. Thackeray, M. Twain, R. L. Stevenson et al. The results are confirmed on the basis of non-parametric range Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests as well as the parametric Pearson's chi-squared test.},
year = {2017}
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - A New Stylometry Method Basing on the Numerals Statistic
AU - Andrei Viacheslavovich Zenkov
AU - Larisa Anatolievna Sazanova
Y1 - 2017/05/22
PY - 2017
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
DO - 10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
T2 - International Journal on Data Science and Technology
JF - International Journal on Data Science and Technology
JO - International Journal on Data Science and Technology
SP - 16
EP - 23
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2472-2235
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijdst.20170302.11
AB - A new method of statistical analysis of texts is suggested. The frequency distribution of the first significant digits in numerals of connected authorial English-language texts is considered. Benford's law is found to hold approximately for these frequencies with a marked predominance of the digit 1. Deviations from Benford's law are statistically significant author peculiarities that allow, under certain conditions, to consider the problem of authorship and distinguish between texts by different authors. At the end of {1, 2,…, 8, 9} row, the digits distribution is subject to strong fluctuations and thus unrepresentative for our purpose. The approach suggested and the conclusions are backed by the examples of the computer analysis of works by W. M. Thackeray, M. Twain, R. L. Stevenson et al. The results are confirmed on the basis of non-parametric range Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests as well as the parametric Pearson's chi-squared test.
VL - 3
IS - 2
ER -
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