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Authorship attribution

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Abstract

This paper considers the problem of quantifying literary style and looks at several variables which may be used as stylistic “fingerprints” of a writer. A review of work done on the statistical analysis of “change over time” in literary style is then presented, followed by a look at a specific application area, the authorship of Biblical texts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK

    David I. Holmes

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  1. David I. Holmes
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David Holmes is a Principal Lecturer in Statistics at the University of the West of England, Bristol with specific responsibility for co-ordinating the research programmes in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He has taught literary style analysis to humanities students since 1983 and has published articles on the statistical analysis of literary style in theJournal of the Royal Statistical Society, History and Computing, andLiterary and Linguistic Computing. He presented papers at the ACH/ALLC conferences in 1991 and 1993.

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Holmes, D.I. Authorship attribution. Comput Hum 28, 87–106 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01830689

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