Abstract
Two approaches to the statistical analysis of texts are suggested, both based on the study of numerals occurring in literary texts. The first approach is related to the study of the frequency distribution of various leading digits of numerals occurring in the text. This approach is convenient for testing whether a group of texts has common authorship: the latter is dubious if the frequency distributions are sufficiently different. The second approach requires the study of the frequencies of numerals themselves. The approach yields information about the author, stylistic and genre peculiarities of the texts and is suited for advanced study of authorial texts. The hypothesis that I. Ilf and E. Petrov are fake authors of novels "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Little Golden Calf", and they were ghosted by M. Bulgakov, is checked. The frequency distribution of numerals, as well as its cluster analysis, do not confirm this hypothesis.
Highlights
The scope of this research pertains to stylometry
Chairs and The Little Golden Calf, and they were ghosted by Bulgakov
The analysis shows that taking into account the occurrence of numerals in literary texts can provide information about the author's, stylistic and genre features of texts
Summary
The scope of this research pertains to stylometry (statistical study of texts to find individual features of the author's style – in particular, for attribution of texts). The leading digits of numerals in coherent texts are distributed even more unevenly than prescribed by Benford's Law: the proportion of numerals starting with 1 can reach 50 per cent. The frequency distribution of the leading digits of numerals is characteristic of each author and appears in all (large enough) of his works. Sometimes this allows to check the authorship of texts: if the distributions of the leading digits significantly differ for two texts, the same authorship of the texts is doubtful. Analysis of the use of the numerals themselves provides richer information about the author's features of the text and, to a large extent, is devoid of indistinguishability of the numeral one and the indefinite article. We consider a problem related to the Russian literature of the 20th century as well
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