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Change of Writing Style with Time

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Abstract

This study investigates the writing stylechange of two Turkish authors, Çetin Altanand Yaşar Kemal, in their old and newworks using respectively their newspapercolumns and novels. The style markers are thefrequencies of word lengths in both text andvocabulary, and the rate of usage of mostfrequent words. For both authors, t-tests andlogistic regressions show that the length ofthe words in new works is significantly longerthan that of the old. The principal componentanalyses graphically illustrate the separationbetween old and new texts. The works arecorrectly categorized as old or new with 75 to100% accuracy and 92% average accuracy usingdiscriminant analysis-based cross validation. The results imply higher time gap may havepositive impact in separation andcategorization. For Altan a regressionanalysis demonstrates a decrease in averageword length as the age of his column increases. One interesting observation is that for oneword each author has similar preference changesover time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and Systems Analysis Department, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Fazli Can

  2. Miami Computing and Information Services, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Jon M. Patton

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  1. Fazli Can
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  2. Jon M. Patton
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Can, F., Patton, J.M. Change of Writing Style with Time. Computers and the Humanities 38, 61–82 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CHUM.0000009225.28847.77

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CHUM.0000009225.28847.77

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