A statistical and lexical study of Clavis Prophetarum [Key of the Prophets] by António Vieira, S.J. (1608–97)

Abstract

Abstract We applied the resources created in NooJ software, developed by Max Silberstein, to the third book of the Clavis Prophetarum [Key of the Prophets], by the 17th century Father António Vieira S.J. (1608–97), in the Latin version and its Portuguese translation by Espírito Santo, 2000, Critical Edition of the Clavis Prophetarum / Chave dos Profetas: Livro III by António Vieira. Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional. We have carried out a statistical and lexical study that attempts to overcome the mere counting of forms, highlighting the lexical richness of texts, forms with higher frequency, new forms, and lexical associations. We created Nooj dictionaries for specific purposes and local grammars that allowed an analysis of the Latin text and its translation into Portuguese, going beyond mere counts of forms and highlighting the vocabulary richness of both texts, the most frequent forms, the new forms, and the lexical associations. This contrastive analysis has shown, for example, that, contrary to what one might expect, the Latin lexicon of the Latin original text is richer than the Portuguese translation.