Decoding Byzantine book epigrams : an exploration of machine-assisted extraction of formulaic material

Publication type
C1
Publication status
Published
Authors
Giannikou, K., Swaelens, C., De Vos, I., Lefever, E., & Bentein, K.
Editor
Colin Swaelens, Maxime Deforche, Ilse De Vos and Els Lefever
Series
Proceedings of the first workshop on Data-driven Approaches to Ancient Languages (DAAL 2024)
Pagination
22-32
Publisher
Language & Translation Technology Team (LT3) (Ghent)
Conference
First Workshop on Data-driven Approaches to Ancient Languages (DAAL 2024) (Ghent, Belgium)
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Abstract

This paper proposes a machine-assisted methodology for identifying and extracting formulaic sequences from a subset of the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams (DBBE). The methodology involves conceptualising formulaicity within the DBBE corpus, pre-processing and extracting n-grams from textual data, followed by refinement before delving into the interpretation of the results. Through systematic application of this methodology, some initial insights into the characteristics of formulaic language within the Byzantine book epigram tradition are gained. Representative findings illustrate the nature of recurring patterns, cases of creative elaboration, and their content. This initial exploration aims to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concept of formulaicity in Byzantine book epigrams; while computational analysis provides a quantitative perspective, linguistic and philological research is necessary for a more nuanced understanding. Future research directions include refining the methodology and expanding the scope of analysis beyond the current subset of the DBBE. Overall, this study lays the groundwork for further research on this rich book epigram tradition.