Showing papers in "Computers and The Humanities in 1978"

A System for Interactive Encoding of Music Scores Under Computer Control

Abstract: The high-speed digital computer has provided the musician with a powerful tool for music research. In information retrieval, analysis, digital sound synthesis, and music printing, studies have clearly demonstrated the computer's potential for assisting the musician.' At the same time, however, the difficulty of preparing music data for computer processing has been, and continues to be, a major deterrent to large-scale computer-aided music studies. At present, notwithstanding several experiments in which special optical devices have been used in the encoding process,2 the only generally available device for converting music scores to computer-usable code is the keypunch machine. But the keypunch is an awkward device for encoding music: its character set is not compatible with music symbols; it is tedious to use; and proofreading of encoded materials is cumbersome and timeconsuming, even for those whose computer installations provide on-line text editing. As an alternative to both optical encoding, which is highly desirable but developed for only the simplest encoding tasks, and the keypunch machine, which is available but generally unappealing to the musician, we are developing an encoding system at Indiana University that consists of two independent but related encoding devices: a sonic digitizer and an organ keyboard, both attached to the computer, which permit the operator to enter data directly from the score for automatic conversion into computer-usable code without initmate knowledge of the code itself or the cumbersome proofreading normally associated with keypunching. Once data are encoded, the programs output the code into standard card-image format for storage on magnetic tape. This feature allows a tape to be processed at any computer installation capable of handling magnetic tape. For portability, all programs are written in ANSI standard FORTRAN to allow operation on any computer with a FORTRAN compiler and appropriate encoding devices and display equipment. The encoding language, the MUSTRAN code originated by Jerome Wenker,3 was chosen for several reasons. First, MUSTRAN is a largely mnemonic code and is relatively complete. Second, it has an operational translator and syntax analyzer that we have running on our CDC 6600 computer on campus. (Versions are also available for IBM and UNIVAC machines.) Third, Wenker having recently updated his language and its associated translator and syntax analyzer (called MUSTRAN II), the language is maintained and current. And fourth, our Computer Music System (discussed briefly below) uses MUSTRAN for encoding, music printing, and analysis. At the same time, however, we realize that the DARMS (Ford-Columbia) language is also carefully designed. It recently has been written in canonical form4 and will no doubt eventually have its own translator and syntax analyzer. Since DARMS is a complete language, and in view of the current efforts being made in its behalf, we are now developing DARMS-toMUSTRAN and MUSTRAN-to-DARMS conve sion packages that will eventually allow us to encode in one language and conveniently convert

Formulaic Analysis of the Computer-Accessible Corpus of Latvian Sun-Songs

Abstract: Classical scholars have known for quite some time that dawn in the Homeric epics is as often as not rose-fingered, the sea wine-colored and Athena bright-eyed. Similarly, in the Russian byliny, a horse is good and a field open about 95 times out of 100. The problem of fixed epithets and loci communes has preoccupied Slavic scholars for close to a century (cf. Uxov, 1957; 1958), but it remained for Parry (1930, 1932), to advance the notion that a heavy reliance on formulae or stock expressions is a prime characteristic of oral literatures. Parry's student, Lord (1964), extended and amplified this position, emphasizing that formulae can embrace much larger units of text than the fixed nounepithet combinations first noted in Homer. Despite this and other restatements of the precise nature of formulae and of their role in the creative process, Parry's basic hypothesis has never been seriously challenged by conclusive

Some considerations concerning encoding and concording texts

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents some considerations concerning encoding and concording texts. The best starting point for the discussion of encoding and concording texts is Wisbey's observation that it “appears sensible to adapt one's approach to the needs of a particular text,” being guided primarily by one's intimate knowledge of that text. This requires a much more flexible approach to humanistic computing than is usual. What one wants or needs to encode in a text depends mostly on what one intends to do. Having begun with a sound text, one must encode only to the extent that encoding will affect the results of the project. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to foresee all the uses to which machine-readable data will eventually be put. Specifically, how a text is encoded is a relative matter as long as it is thorough. J. B. Smith noted that there are always tradeoffs, but this need not be an overriding concern when one knows his text well enough to determine the more important and the less important features. As long as a text is encoded so that it can be mechanically reproduced in a way that does not differ substantially from the original, it is adequate. There ought to be a distinction made between how a text is initially encoded and how it is encoded for processing, particularly if one intends to combine data at a later time.

A computer-assisted study of dissonance in the masses of Josquin Desprez

Abstract: Dissonance and consonance are basic attributes of any music whether it be modal, tonal, atonal, or twelve-tone, etc. The decision processes required of the listener for recognizing a particular sound event as a dissonance (and distinguishing its components) will be different for the various musical styles (presumably, those processes will not be too different between some modal and tonal music). This study represents an effort to formalize, in a computer program, a sequence of possible processes for the recognition of component elements of selected dissonant structures in the modal music of the Renaissance composer, Josquin Desprez.' Voice-Leading in Dissonances. Assuming the intervals of a 2nd, 7th, 4th (with lowest sounding voice), and their octave equivalents to be dissonant, we addressed ourselves initially to the following problem: Given two pitches, e.g., G and A (Ex. 1), that form a dissonance, which is the dissonant pitch?

The Application of Advanced Technology to Scholarly Communication in the Humanities

Abstract: ions, and are judged as much by esthetic cri eria as by empirical success. How can one index the fundamental principle of the general theory of relativity, that the laws of physics must appear the same to all observers regardless of their relative motion? Although there may be some fields in the sciences (e.g., engineering and chemistry) that lend themselves more readily to applications of the machine than do the humanities, we conclude that existing applications of computers to the scientific literature are highly relevant for the humanities, and every possible effort should be made to transfer the

Computers and the Old Spanish Dictionary

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the Old Spanish Dictionary. The use of computers for the purpose of facilitating the work of compiling the Wisconsin Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language is still, relatively speaking, in its cradle years. Yet, the Old Spanish lexicographical effort at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the parent organization under which that effort has been carried forth can hardly be classified as infants. The Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language is a vast citational lexicon, illustrating Old Spanish word usage through selected representative citations of medieval Spanish vocabulary in all its forms and functions as attested to in some 250 chosen manuscripts and incunabula produced between the years 900 and 1500.

A computer analysis of metrical patterns in Beowulf

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a report on a computer analysis of the metrics of Beowulf, a project undertaken by Robert P. Creed and John Miles Foley. Their primary concern has been the elucidation of a difficult area in Anglo-Saxon studies, the recovery of the actual sounds of what was once performed poetry. The chapter highlights the critical context of the inquiry. At appropriate points, the project furnished information about the computer techniques, along with examples of various special modes of investigation. With expected data on the rhythmical makeup of both the poem as a whole and its various passages, the project uncovered a new formulaic structure in Beowulf—a purely metrical unit of composition. All of these different kinds of measurements help the modern-day reader to a truer appreciation of the poem's art by directing attention to the role of sound and the relation of that sound to poetic meaning.

Computer Indexing of Illuminated Manuscripts for Use in Medieval Studies

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the importance of computer indexing of illuminated manuscripts for use in Medieval Studies. With the resurgence of interest in Medieval Studies in North America, where some 80 interdisciplinary programs have emerged, teachers and scholars have discovered that the traditional academic disciplines may best be taught by employing an integrated cultural approach. It is an ancient discovery that art in the form of manuscript illustrations were used for both decorative and educative functions. Medievalists rediscover this ancient precept and are applying it to teaching and researching medieval culture as a whole. Commitment to the interdisciplinary approach to culture, however, necessitates the availability of and intellectual access to the rich visual heritage of the Middle Ages. Traditionally, slide collections in most museums, archives, and universities are zealously maintained for the exclusive use by professional staff. Thus, the literature specialist, historian, and philosopher are confronted with borrowing slides from an unsympathetic source or with building their own collections, which more often than not end up hidden away in desk drawers. Another related problem is that the classification and cataloging schemes used by museums and archives do not always allow for subject access to the collections. The answer lies in the creation of an institution-wide slide file for teachers and scholars in Medieval Studies and other interdisciplinary programs.

A terminal for music manuscript input

Abstract: In the past fifteen years a large number of projects linking computer technology with music analysis, composition and printed reproduction have been proposed or implemented with varying degrees of success. In all but the purely machine compositional, one of the major considerations has been the means of translating an existing music manuscript into a form suitable for computer use. The primary method has been to encode the composition with an alphanumeric terminal using one of several languages designed for this purpose (e.g., DARMS, IML). The weakness of this system lies in the lack of visual feedback to the encoder. Of other attempted methods using various technologies such as graphic tablets or direct piano keyboard encoding, none has gained widespread acceptance because of cost and other problems. A commercially developed terminal specifically designed for encoding music manuscripts in a truly interactive manner, considerably more efficient and cost-effective than other existing means, would obviously serve an important function in musicology as well. In the 1940's as part of an attempt to mechanize certain aspects of the music engraving industry, I developed the first mechanical music typewriter, the Music Writer. In the early 1950's, the Music Writer was modified to operate electrically and a paper tape punch was attached to provide digitized spacing and line justification. In 1964 the PCS-300 Music Keypunch was produced, a direct outgrowth of the modified Music Writer but with many improvements. Several PCS-300's have been the sole input devices in the computer-driven music engraving process developed by me and in use since 1969. In this process, the manuscript is encoded on paper tape by the PCS-300 and the tape becomes the input to a set of page layout programs which run on a DEC PDP-8 computer that in turn produces a set of directives to a Photon printer. The PCS-300's have served admirably, enabling us to produce over 1000 pages of quality music engraving each month. However, they have the inherent disadvantages of electromechanical devices: complexity, noise, and the need for frequent main enance. In addition, production of these devic s n small quantities is costly. Over the last few years, the widespread availability of inexpensive microprocessors has afected profoundly the design of specialized devices in myriad applications. When I set about designing a replacement for the PCS-300, I had in mind several objectives: the new device had to be essentially compatible with the PCS-300 from the operator's viewpoint, the encoding of the musi manuscript had to be the same as that produced by the PCS-300 (although certainly paper tape would no longer be the medium), there must be simple yet powerful editing and correction facilities (sorely lacking in the PCS-300), and, finally, the overall hardware costs had to be tightly controlled since the economics of the music engraving business do not allow for luxuries. I used a popular microprocessor (Intel 8080A) and relatively inexpensive CRT technology to develop the PCS-500 Music CRT, a terminal which is proving to be efficient, economical and versatile. The operator of the PCS-500 uses a straightforward scheme for encoding a manuscript. This same scheme has been used successfully with the PCS-300 for ten years. Each item in the manuscript is entered through the terminal as a combination of a pitch, a character and one or several spaces (hence the terminal name: Pitch, Character, Space) as if it were

Conceptual glossaries: A new tool for medievalists

Abstract: Publisher Summary Although computer treatments of medieval texts have been around for quite some time, the majority of scholars have failed to accept them as valuable tools for literary analysis. This chapter discusses why they have failed to accept them as valuable tools for literary analysis, and presents an introduction to conceptual glossaries (CGs) as a new tool for medievalists. It also explains the role of CGs. Compared to conventional indices and concordances, CGs are something similar to the yellow pages in a phone directory compared to the white pages. Beyond the advantage of a conceptual arrangement of the word material, CGs also includes the combined characteristics of lemmatized word indices and concordances without their shortcomings. CGs consist of the following parts: (1) the conceptual system, (2) the conceptual glossary cum concordance, and (3) alphabetical lexicon with conceptual references.

The computer in social history: historical demography in Germany.

Abstract: Among historical disciplines, modern social history is one of the fields in which quantification is relatively often employed today (Bick et al., 1977; QUANTUM-SSHA, 1977). Since in Germany most professors must represent their fields "in teaching and research" at the same time, the social historian belongs almost automatically to that group of scientists whose profession compels them again and again to think about "Computers and the Humanities" (History and the Computer, 1974, 105-248). If one glances through the literature or asks around among colleagues who have themselves worked with computers, one quite often runs across a certain resignation. The labor involved in collecting and evaluating the data was often much greater than originally planned. The investment of time which turned out to be neces-

CAI in College English

Abstract: College English teachers can relax temporarily. Early fears that computers would replace them have proven as groundless as similar fears of printed books, television, programmed texts, and audiovisual aids. Although some industry spokesmen1 still forecast a brave new world of computer-managed learning, recent reports from diverse sources2 indicate that the computer has not revolutionized any field, especially English; in fact, CAI does not dependably produce results significantly better than those of traditional classroom techniques. We should not be surprised. Even teachers of science have found that the computer as a teaching tool supplements rather than replaces standard instruction. Their real revolution has been produced by the calculator, which can actually perform necessary operations far more efficiently than paper and pencil and far more accurately than most slide rules; a comparable revolution resulted from the widespread use of the typewriter and duplicators, which similarly speed up necessary operations. Computers can, of course, act as calculators and typewriters, but they are unlikely to have equal impact until they also are available in the homes of most solvent students and until they offer significant gains over calculators and typewriters. The computer does have several obvious advantages in the field of English, which after all begins with reading and writing. For students at an early level, the computer can--a la Sesame Street-provide a new way or presenting the written word. It can also drill in elementary reading and language use skills patiently and at a student's own pace, much like an animated programmed text. Thus CAI offers alternative, effective, and enjoyable means to present material usually given largely through classroom reading and drill. At the advanced level, a scholar may use the computer to compile and access bibliographies, to construct linguistic models, to locate materials through such library systems as PALNET, to analyze word usage or help prepare concordances, to study morphological and syntactic patterns in a text and compare them with those of other materials, to keep academic records, and to provide a possible alternative to the U.S. Postal Service. All such uses entail more efficient solutions to old problems rather than truly revolutionary innovations. But the computer seems less obviously useful at the great middle level of education in English where a student reads extensively, discusses ideas with others, and learns to write effectively. Consequently, CAI for college English classes has not produced spectacular results, and should not be expected to do so in the near future. This prognostication should help to dispell the naive view that the computer might be the devil incarnate, out to destroy the teaching profession. Usefulness should not, however, be measured in terms of revolutionary results; a new medium should be welcomed if it can provide such side benefits as increased student enthusiasm for

Medieval charters and the computer: An analysis using Mark IV

Abstract: Publisher Summary Experience shows that the bulk of quantitative material in charters and other legal sources can be entered in the computer. The great advantage of this tool is that when properly programmed, it can sort and reproduce information in an endless variety of combinations. It can do nothing that the historian has not already attempted by manual means, but it is capable of organizing in minutes what, if done by hand, could take anywhere from days to years. Methods of historical research tend to change slowly, particularly in fields such as medieval studies where the historian must frequently invest a large amount of his time gathering, transcribing, and organizing documentation. It is gratifying to see that some scholars have taken the bit between the teeth and adapted the computer to their needs. But in the short time that they have been utilized, improvements in computer design and capacity have advanced so quickly that projects that would have been clumsy if not next to impossible a decade ago are now quite feasible. One such improvement in computer language is Mark IV, a general-purpose file management system. An advantage of Mark IV for social scientists and students of the humanities not intent upon the sole pursuit of statistical analysis is that it allows one to enter alphabetic codes where previous systems, for financial or organizational reasons, encouraged or demanded the reduction to numeric codes of information to be entered in the machine. Probably the first attempt to analyze medieval charters by Mark IV is Documents of Essex England Data Set.

The Study of Chaucer's Vocabulary

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a project on the study of Chaucer's vocabulary undertaken by Walter S. Phelan. The computer has added an important dimension to studies of text, comparable to the invention of printing. The chapter describes a system for the analysis of Chaucer's vocabulary with the aid of a computer. Close examination of Chaucer's use of function words in The Canterbury Tales reveals that words that serve a purely syntactic function in prose often serve additional functions in verse. His works represent a separate attempt by him mapping the logosphere, and elementary differences in approach are reflected in the differences in the vocabulary of each tale. More especially, the vocabulary of Chaucer's version of a given tale may be compared to other versions in Middle and Modern English to illuminate his style of narrative discourse and ultimately his logosphere.

Records of early english drama and the computer

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of computer in the preservation of records of early English drama. Since 1790, when Edmond Malone printed excerpts from the diary of Philip Henslowe, the major Elizabethan theater owner, literary antiquarians, and theater historians have eagerly searched for early English dramatic records. After the Malone Society was founded in 1907, partly to publish records of the professional theaters of Renaissance London, much information became available in its collections volumes, but many medieval provincial records were left unedited. In 1975, Records of Early English Drama (REED) was created by a team of researchers to edit and index documentary evidence for all performance and performers of drama, minstrelsy, and ceremony throughout Great Britain from the beginnings to 1642. Computer technology has already been helpful in editing. A Toronto program, Concordance Generation System (COGS), has produced, for the volumes of the York and Chester records, concordances that have been invaluable in verifying, glossing, and indexing texts by hand.

Vox Latina: Belgian Initiatives in Data Processing the Intellectual Language of Europe, A.D. 197–1965

Abstract: Belgian scholars have undertaken a series of initiatives for the study of Latin, the primary intellectual vehicle of Europe for almost two millennia. They are currently engaged in the computerization and systematic philological analysis of a great number of texts. Part of this work is being accomplished by the Belgian National Committee for the Dictionary of Medieval Latin under the auspices of the National Endowment for Scientific Research. The National Committee has entrusted to CETEDOC, the Center for the Electronic Treatment of Documents of the University of Louvain, the responsibility for computerizing and analyzing all texts of Belgian provenance from the Middle Ages to 1200 AD.

Data base development and analysis for the social historian: The educational status of the beneficed clergy of the diocese of Hereford, 1289–1539

Abstract: This paper has attempted to describe a set of machine procedures able to perform sophisticated manipulation on structured text files, a data format particularly well-suited to the needs of the social historian concerned with quantitative analysis. Examples taken from a initial study based on the parish clergy of the diocese of Hereford have served to demonstrate how these programs can be used to prepare data easily in a machine-readable form, and once they have been entered, restructure them in ways conducive to the easy analysis of significant features. The ability to reduce quantifiable aspects of textual data to matrix form is similarly provided. The results of the Hereford project, useful in themselves, also indicate the direction which additions to the package will take. At present little facility is available for automatically “tagging’ identifications. That is, once it has been determined to the user's satisfaction that the John Smith who was presented to Ross rectory in 1490 is the same individual who was collated to a cathedral prebend in the following year, it should be possible to integrate this relationship as a linkage in the data base. At present this is done with cross-referencing in one of the notes fields, but we are beginning to develop more sophisticated and efficient methods of creating linkages between related entries using the list processing capabilities available in SAIL. While the program package is still evolving, all of the routines described in this paper are fully implemented and readers with access to a PDP-10 system who might be interested in using the programs in their own applications are welcome to write for an exportable compiled version of the package. A manual describing the operation of each program is also in preparation.

Computer courses for humanists: A survey

Abstract: I assume that with those courses reported in the previous surveys, those written up in various journals, and those mentioned in the returns to this survey, a high percentage of the significant computer courses for humanists (within the surveyed population) have been reported. The majority of questionnaires that were not returned (1640 or 87%) probably should be attributed to the fact that the respondents had nothing to report.

The Cognitive Basis of Late Medieval Religious Biographies

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the cognitive basis of late Medieval religious biographies. Medievalists may rarely assume that the written sources from which they derive their information are well-known to the general reader. The four treatises that, as one whole, have become famous as the Imitatio Christi and with which the name of Thomas a Kempis is associated are no doubt among the relatively few exceptions. Imitatio Christi may be seen as an epitome of its religious aims. Its adherents strove to realize values and a living faith of which effects were meant to be visible in everyday life. In this manner, they attempted to transcend the superficiality and secularization typical of 14th century official church life. The church appeared to many to have forfeited its function as intermediary between God and man, and the members of the Modern Devotion and many other like-minded men and women sought a more direct spiritual contact with God. For even within monastery walls, this could not often be found. The ordinary layman who really wanted to save his soul had no other choice than to join or found a community of laymen, in whose comparative seclusion from the world he might attempt to live a more truly pious life.

The Mt. Angel Abbey manuscript and rare books project: Cataloguing with FAMULUS

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the Mt. Angel Abbey Manuscript and Rare Books Project, which focuses on cataloguing with FAMULUS. Mt. Angel Abbey Library has begun cataloguing its rich research collection of manuscripts, incunabula, and pre-1800 rare books, which has special strength in patristics, liturgy, hagiography, theology, church history, canon law, and Counter-Reformation apologetics. More than merely an isolated cataloguing project, however, the current undertaking is envisaged as a case study or pilot project to investigate the possibilities of adapting packaged computer programs to produce inexpensive book catalogs and machine readable data bases with better descriptive data than in common indexes, census surveys, or short-title catalogs available to codicologists and historical bibliographers.

Computers and medieval english lexicography

Abstract: Dictionaries and related language reference works constitute a rich but under-exploited resource for the history of languages and of language study in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the size and complexity of typical medieval dictionaries make editions and analyses by traditional methods prohibitively expensive in time and money. Using as an example the Latin-Middle English dictionaryMedulla grammatice, the paper describes some central problems in the study of medieval English lexicography and the solutions provided by computers, which, with their immense speed, profound memory, and perfect accuracy can help scholars analyze, edit, and promulgate medieval documents and the linguistic data they contain.

Dictio probatoria as Fingerprint: Computer Discovery of Manuscript Provenances

Abstract: Publisher Summary Circulating libraries have perennially had a hard time getting their books back from the sort of borrowers whose scholarship is stronger than their honesty. In the manuscript period, before 1450, there was another form of fraud against which libraries had to protect themselves, the substitution of a poor copy for an expensive manuscript of the same text. Against this trick, as early as its 1270 catalogue, the College de Sorbonne used a device called the dictio probatoria, which was later imitated all over Europe. Altogether, these notices could serve to establish the provenances of at least 10,000 manuscript books, for the probatoria remains today as valid a guarantee of the individual identity of a codex as it was 600 years ago. In their researches on medieval libraries, Ehrle, Maier, Delisle, and others have used the probatoriae from old records to match them with existing books when the match was indicated or at least suggested by other evidence. These experiences have suggested that it would be profitable to let a computer match the largest possible collection of medieval probatoria notices with parallel data collected from existing manuscript collections, beginning with the proven lodes, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the Vatican Library.

Towards an analysis of Notker Labeo's Old High German

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a project whose principal objective was to provide a basis for a detailed analysis of late Old High German (OHG). Such an analysis had been impeded by the lack of an extensive and readily accessible tabulation of the word material based on the manuscripts. With computer techniques, it was possible to undertake a survey of this large body of material, to construct a model of OHG in the early 11th century, and to begin to establish a precise hypothesis of its relation to Middle High German, which rose in the late 11th century. No analysis of OHG had previously been carried out on this scale and in this manner. It was anticipated that the project would help resolve in exact detail the long-debated question of what happened in late OHG to permit scholars to posit two historically distinct stages of language development in that pivotal century. Notker Labeo of St. Gall, who died in 1022, is not only the most important writer in late OHG but is also the most widely preserved writer of the entire OHG period.

Möglichkeiten und Grenzen Elektronischer Datenverarbeitung bei der Erforschung der Geschichte des Mittelalters

Abstract: Research supported by computers in the field of medieval history, although developed in several areas, still produces controversial discussions. An attempt is made here to determine the possibilities and limits of the use of electronic data processing, with a critical eye of the various areas of application. The operation of electric calculators, which require a restriction to specific categories of questions, doubtless leads to new and different utilization of historical materials and data. From the point of view of how these materials are used, projects that have been developed to date can be divided into three categories of analysis: historical texts, personal history data, and economic-historical data.

Zur Erstellung einer computerunterstützten Grammatik “Flexionsmorphologie des Frühneuhochdeutschen”

Abstract: The inflectional morphology of Early New High German is the subject of research at the Forschungsvorhaben Grammatik des Fruhneuhochdeutschen at the University of Bonn. Because the High German of the period 1350–1700 shows strong graphemic and morphemic variation, we could not use improved computational lemmatizing alogorithms for computer-assisted analysis. Instead, the data base was extended by philological information manually analyzed. To illustrate our proceeding in setting up the paradigms requires explaining the different algorithms for analyzing verb and noun inflection. The numerous grammatical positions, for most of which little evidence is given, and the prevailing inflected structure precluded an automatic segmentation of verb forms. The program for establishing verb paradigms is based on extended informations (for instance, those about endings, historical inflection classes, preterite suffixes, etc.), and consists of steps for sorting, collecting, and printing. For nouns, the automatic segmentation can be carried out by using as a word-stem the nominative singular form, which always shows a zero-morpheme. In a lemmatizing procedure different from those already in use, the nominative plural form (singular stem + plural formative) is taken as word-stem in order to segmentize the plural cases, and thus avoid the problem of stem variation which is due to the “Pluralumlaut.” A noun class is defined by the combination of a singular paradigm, which is characterized by a genitive formative and a plural formative.

Informatique et Histoire Médiévale à l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire de Textes

Abstract: In order to handle its own documentation as well as in order to come to the aid of isolated researchers who have no access to computers, the Institute of Research and of the History of Texts is attempting to put together a certain number of programs which can satisfy the needs of various types of medieval historical documents.

From microfilm to computer: 15th century cadastral and notarial archives

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the project, “From Microfilm to Computer: 15th Century Cadastral and Notarial Archives” and the methodology used in this study. The small Provencal town of Brignoles, 55 km east of Aix-en-Provence, offers an abundance of historical sources especially favorable to the study of economic and social structures in the depressed period of the later Middle Ages (c. 1390–c. 1470): minutes of the town council, accounts, cartularies, and two outstanding series of cadastral and notarial registers. Various considerations led to a computer-aided analysis of a large part of this documentation. Because of their relatively systematic nature, cadastral archives, that is, lists of properties and of their owners, which are in effect a series of recurring data elements, lend themselves to formal data analysis, whether for the study of urban or rural transformations, the hierarchy of wealth, geographical, social mobility, or, less frequently, demographical structures. While the use of the computer is constantly expanding in the field of medieval historical studies, the notarial archives originated in Italy and spread widely over southern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries have been quite neglected.

The use of computers in editing medieval baptismal records in Pisa (1457–1509)

Abstract: Publisher Summary The main purpose of the project on the use of computers in editing Medieval baptismal records in Pisa (1457-1509) was editing one of the most ancient baptismal records that has survived: the lists of baptisms administered in the Cathedral of Pisa, starting in the year 1457. This project considered a relatively short period, from the start of the records in 1457 to 1509, when Pisa was conquered by Florence for the second time. This choice depends on three main reasons. The most important part of the project is the program for queries. It is a conversational program; the user sends a query to the computer that lists all records satisfying the query; the answer can be written on the terminal or, when it is very long, on the printer. The project produced simply an edition of the source, as it was written, and its systematic indexing by means of the computer. Thanks to the computer, however, it was possible to go still further.