Criteria for Analyzing Author's Style

Here's an example of style analyses I do when comparing portions of the New Testament. I maintain sets of grammatical/syntactical structures to search for on each section of text and then compare the results. Some of the searches are mere tallies of tenses, person, moods, cases, etc. Things like:

V1 [VERB present]
V2 [VERB future]
V3 [VERB imperfect]
...

Note that these are in Accordance format. Other searches are structural in nature, such as

I10 [PREPOSITION] [ARTICLE] [VERB infinitive]
I11 [VERB infinitive] <NOT> <PRECEDED BY> [ARTICLE]
I12 ([ARTICLE] [VERB infinitive]) <OR> ([ARTICLE] [Particle] [VERB infinitive])
...

I run the searches for each set of texts (and by "I run the searches", I mean that I write an Applescript to do all the tedious work for me) and then put the results into a table. As an example, here is a taste of the results from an unpublished paper I have that compares the speeches in Acts.

In addition to collecting data for Paul's speeches, Peter's speeches and a sample of narrative in Acts, data was compiled for the whole of Acts, Luke, 1 Maccabbees and 2 Maccabbees, all for the sake of comparison. I toy around with what correlation coefficient to use, but the purposes is then to compare how similar and different sections of text are. Here are the results from the Acts paper:

One of the grand observations of the paper is that Paul's speeches and Peter's speeches are more similar to each other than they are to any other sampling of text. A perfect correlation is one that approaches 1.0 (positive or negative), and the .92 correlation between Paul and Peter is greater than either's correlation with the narrative in Acts (.89 & .88).
In addition, I look at the results for each criteria and consider any anomalies that fall outside of one standard deviation and are not so small of a sample to be statistically or practically insignificant. The ones I think are worth mention in the manuscript are easily put into charts, of course.

Some stylistic differences so clearly affirm what are expected features of different forms. The speeches have a higher number of Vocative uses; the narrative material has a higher percentage of continuative conjunctions.

But other anomalies are understood only in the context of the subject matter. Look at V29 and V30 which are [VERB first] and [VERB first singular]. Paul's speeches clearly stand out. The contain much first person, as often with the inclusive, community building "we". See how the fun stuff really begins once you've compiled the data and looked at it?
In my current work, I'm doing these types of analysis on text portions that have significance in Synoptic Problem issues (ie. Luke's Q, Matthew's Q, Mark, Reconstructed Mark, etc.).
Having layed out a sketch of the methodology, I'd like to hear suggestions for grammatical and syntactical searches to add to the list of criteria, ones that represent more features of the style of a text that are worth considering when compiling data. Here's the full list I work with right now:

V=Verbals
I=Infinitive and Participles
N=Nouns
P=Pronouns
C=Clauses and Phrases
O=Particles and Other
(Vicinity searches (And/OR) reflect those within same clause.)

V1 [VERB present]
V2 [VERB future]
V3 [VERB imperfect]
V4 [VERB aorist]
V5 [VERB perfect]
V6 [VERB pluperfect]
V7 [VERB optative]
V8 [VERB imperative]
V9 [VERB second imperative]
V10 [VERB third imperative]
V11 [VERB aorist imperative]
V12 [VERB subjunctive]
V13 [VERB second subjunctive]
V14 [VERB subjunctive] <NOT> ean
V15 [VERB middle]
V16 [VERB present middle]
V17 [VERB future middle]
V18 [VERB imperfect middle]
V19 [VERB aorist middle]
V20 [VERB perfect middle]
V21 [VERB pluperfect middle]
V22 [VERB passive]
V23 [VERB present passive]
V24 [VERB future passive]
V25 [VERB imperfect passive]
V26 [VERB aorist passive]
V27 [VERB perfect passive]
V28 [VERB pluperfect passive]
V29 [VERB first]
V30 [VERB first singular]
V31 [VERB first plural]
V32 [VERB first present]
V33 [VERB first future]
V34 [VERB first imperfect]
V35 [VERB first aorist]
V36 [VERB first perfect]
V37 [VERB first pluperfect]
V38 [VERB second]
V39 [VERB second singular]
V40 [VERB second plural]

I1 [VERB participle]
I2 [VERB future participle]
I3 [VERB aorist participle]
I4 [VERB present participle]
I5 [VERB perfect participle]
I6 [VERB passive participle]
I7 [VERB aorist passive participle]
I8 [VERB infinitive]
I9 [VERB future infinitive]
I10 [PREPOSITION] [ARTICLE] [VERB infinitive]
I11 [VERB infinitive] <NOT> <PRECEDED BY> [ARTICLE]
I12 ([ARTICLE] [VERB infinitive]) <OR> ([ARTICLE] [Particle] [VERB infinitive])
I13 [ARTICLE] [VERB participle]
I14 [VERB participle] [ARTICLE]
I15 [VERB participle] <NOT> <PRECEDED BY> [ARTICLE]
I16 eimi <FOLLOWED BY> <WITHIN 3 Words> [VERB participle nominative] <NOT> [ARTICLE nominative]
N1 [NOUN nominative]
N2 [NOUN genitive]
N3 [NOUN dative]
N4 [NOUN accusative]
N5 [NOUN] [NOUN]
N6 kai [NOUN]
N7 (kai [NOUN nominative]) <PRECEDED BY> <WITHIN 3 Words> [ARTICLE nominative]
N8 (kai [NOUN genitive]) <PRECEDED BY> <WITHIN 3 Words> [ARTICLE genitive]
N9 (kai [NOUN dative]) <PRECEDED BY> <WITHIN 3 Words> [ARTICLE dative]
N10 (kai [NOUN accusative]) <PRECEDED BY> <WITHIN 3 Words> [ARTICLE accusative]
N11 [NOUN vocative]
N12 [INTERJECTION] [NOUN vocative]
N13 [NOUN singular vocative]
N14 "*e"@[NOUN vocative]
N15 [NOUN vocative] [NOUN vocative]
N16 "andres"@[NOUN vocative]
N17 "andres adelfoi"
N18 "andres" [NOUN vocative]

P1 [PRONOUN]
P2 [PRONOUN correlative]
P3 [PRONOUN demonstrative adjectival]
P4 [PRONOUN demonstrative substantival]
P5 [PRONOUN indefinite]
P6 [PRONOUN interrogative]
P7 [PRONOUN possessive]
P8 [PRONOUN reflexive]
P9 [PRONOUN relative]
P10 [PRONOUN personal intensive]
P11 [PRONOUN personal]
P12 [PRONOUN personal first]
P13 [PRONOUN personal first singular]
P14 [PRONOUN personal first plural]
P15 [PRONOUN personal second]
P16 [PRONOUN personal second singular]
P17 [PRONOUN personal second plural]
P18 [PRONOUN personal third]
C1 ei <FOLLOWED BY> [VERB indicative]
C2 ei <FOLLOWED BY> [VERB optative]
C3 ean
C4 [PREPOSITION genitive]
C5 [PREPOSITION dative]
C6 [PREPOSITION accusative]
C7 [PREPOSITION] (men, de, gar, oun)
C8 [PREPOSITION] <Within 2> [NOUN] (men,de,gar,oun)
C9 [VERB passive] <AND> upo
C10 [VERB passive] <NOT> upo
C11 en
C12 eis
C13 ek
C14 epi
C15 pros
C16 dia
C17 apo
C18 kata
C19 meta
C20 peri
C21 upo
C22 para
C23 uper
C24 sun
C25 pro
C26 anti
C27 ana
C28 [IMPROPERPREPOSITION]
O1 de
O2 kai
O3 men
O4 te
O5 [CONJUNCTION continuative]
O6 [CONJUNCTION correlative]
O7 [CONJUNCTION disjunctive]
O8 [CONJUNCTION interrogative]
O9 [CONJUNCTION copulative]
O10 [CONJUNCTION inferential]
O11 [CONJUNCTION explanatory]
O12 [CONJUNCTION adversative]
O13 [CONJUNCTION causal]
O14 [CONJUNCTION conditional]
O15 [CONJUNCTION locational]
O16 [CONJUNCTION nominal]
O17 [CONJUNCTION comparative]
O18 [CONJUNCTION result]
O19 [CONJUNCTION concessive]
O20 [CONJUNCTION temporal]
O21 [PARTICLE]
O22 [PARTICLE alternating]
O23 [PARTICLE indefinite]
O24 [PARTICLE interrogative]
O25 [PARTICLE emphatic]
O26 [PARTICLE negative]
O27 [PARTICLE comparative]
O28 [PARTICLE subjective]
O29 [PARTICLE modal]
O30 "idou"
O31 [ADVERB]
O32 [ADJECTIVE]

Special Key Symbols

This has been an increasingly popular reference page on the Macintosh Biblioblog. Lot's of folks come here looking for the Mac key symbol for the alt key or the option key or the control key or the open apple key, or other standard symbols for the Macintosh keyboard. Apparently it is a handy reference to have all the popular symbols for the special keys on the keyboard. Here they are more or less in order from left to right, including Unicode Hex code point references:

⎋	Escape	U+238B
⇥	Tab forward	U+21E5
⇤	Tab back	U+21E4
⇪	Capslock	U+21EA
⇧	Shift	U+21E7
⌃	Control	U+2303
⌥	Option (Alt, Alternative)	U+2325
	Apple symbol 1	U+F8FF
⌘	Command (Open Apple) 2	U+2318
␣	Space	U+2423
⏎ ↩	Return	U+23CE U+21A9
⌫	Delete back	U+232B
⌦	Delete forward	U+2326
﹖⃝	Help	U+003F & U+20DD
⇱ ↖ ↸	Home	U+21F1 U+2196 U+21B8
⇲ ↘	End	U+21F2 U+2198
⇞	Pageup	U+21DE
⇟	Pagedown	U+21DF
↑ ⇡	Up arrow	U+2191 U+21E1
↓ ⇣	Down arrow	U+2193 U+21E3
← ⇠	Left arrow	U+2190 U+21E0
→ ⇢	Right arrow	U+2192 U+21E2
⌧	Clear	U+2327
⇭	Numberlock	U+21ED
⌤	Enter	U+2324
⏏	Eject	U+23CF
⌽	Power 3	U+233D

For information on how to type or enter these symbols in your documents, have a look at Entering Unicode Text and Symbols.
1 The Apple symbol  is in the corporate private range and is only available in Mac fonts. It can be typed with Option+Shift+k ( ⌥⇧+k ).
2 For the history on the Apple key symbol/Command key symbol, have a look here.

3 Most fonts render this code point as IEC 5010 "line within a circle", , not , IEC 5009 "line partially within a broken circle" which is found on newest keyboards, though some fonts do.

(If any symbol isn't displaying correctly, Unicode font replacement is the culprit. Everything tests great in latest versions of Safari and Firefox.)

Last updated: 9/19/12

Feed Me

We are getting more and more ways to receive RSS/Atom feeds on our lovely Macs. Those with the lastest OS X 10.4 Tiger, the RSS Screen Saver seems to be a bit hit. Safari's ability to be fed is a nice addition as well. I still prefer a dedicated feed reader, such as NetNewswire. They just released version 2, you might want to have a look at it. A free Lite version is still available.
I subscribe to blogs, news services, dynamic feeds from google and technorati... I don't frequent any web resource anymore with any regularity. If it won't feed me, it is all but cut out of my diet.

Also, note the enhance feed for The Macintosh Biblioblog. If you haven't changed your feed, I'd encourage you to change over to the New RSS/Atom Feedburner Feed.

Unicode: Typing with Apple's Greek Polytonic Keyboard

I pulled the old material from my Unicode tutorial and the keyboard I had created when I heard Apple was including a Greek Polytonic Unicode keyboard with OS X 10.4. From the Tiger features page, it says,

More Languages and Scripts

Tiger includes... a new input mode for Korean and extended system fonts to support Greek (modern and classical)...

So, now the answer to the question is simple. Q: How do I type Greek using Unicode? A: Go to the International preferences pane, go to the "Input menu" tab and enable show input menu in the menu bar. Then scroll down the list and add a checkmark to "Greek Polytonic" keyboard. With that enabled, you can used the menu to go from your native language to Greek and back. Set up key combos to switch back and forth on the fly using the Keyboard preference panel.

Here is the key mapping for the extended Greek Polytonic keyboard:

Shift key down:

Option key down:

Shift + Option keys down:

It looks like the keys are mapped close to the Greek national keyboard, including:

acute	]}
grave	'
diaresis	:
circumflex	[
iota subscript	{
smooth aspirate	'
rough aspirate	"
smooth with acute	/
rough with acute	?
smooth with grave	=
rough with grave	+
smooth with circumflex	-
rough with circumflex	_
question mark	q
bicolon	Q
terminal sigma	w
acute with diaresis	W
upsilon	Y
theta	U
omega	v
xi	j
phi	f
chi	x

You type the accent first, then the character and it combines into one character. Voila.

Macintosh Bible Software Survey

David Lang of the Christian Macintosh User Group (CMUG) has asked me to post the announcement for his now annual software review.

How do all of the [new developments, such as improvements to Accordance, MacSword, Bible Reader Free, and iLumina, as well as the announcements from QuickVerse and Logos to deliver Mac products] affect you, the Mac Bible Software user? How aware are you of the different products that are available? How well do they meet your needs? That's what this survey is designed to find out.

Find the survey here.

P.S. For the several of you who have asked, my followup reflection on the Logos announcement is still in the mill.