Friday, 11 March 2011

A strategy for analysis of larger blocks of text

I have looked at psalm 9 with its more than 30 recurring words. It is too large to see the patterns at one time or to judge how such a poem might have been deliberately constructed according to them.  So my strategy is to look at the text with varying parameters: for now verse from 1 to n and occurrences from 2 to m.

Here is psalm 9 showing only those words that recur exactly twice. This helps to find if there are specific single recurrence frames. See if you agree with me that there are two significant pairs dividing the poem into two exactly.  Following it is a table of words that recur more than twice.

In principle, I could chunk any piece of the data - e.g. I could examine psalms 1, 2, and 149 to see if my data confirms Robert Cole's analysis.  And I could look at other chunks of text (in the psalter where I have largely corrected my tables.  The data is here if anyone is interested - if you are looking and find errors, please let me know.

Keywords in relative order - where the count is twice only
RootVs
מות מות 1
ספר אספרה 2
בךבך3
שׁוב בשׁוב 4
איב אויבי 4
פנה מפניך4
דיןודיני 5
כסא לכסא 5
צדק צדק 5
עלםלעולם6
עד ועד 6
איב האויב 7
זכר זכרם7
המה המה 7
עלםלעולם8
ישׁב ישׁב 8
כסא כסאו 8
צדק בצדק 9
דיןידין9
שׂגב משׂגב 10
שׂגב משׂגב 10
בךבך11
ידע יודעי 11
דרשׁ דרשׁיך11
ישׁב ישׁב 12
ציוןציון12
דרשׁ דרשׁ 13
זכר זכר 13
עני עניים13
עני עניי 14
שׁער משׁערי 14
מות מות 14
ספר אספרה 15
שׁער בשׁערי 15
ציוןציון15
שׁוב ישׁובו 18
עד לעד 19
אנושׁ אנושׁ 20
פנה פניך20
ידע ידעו 21
אנושׁ אנושׁ 21
המה המה 21

Keywords in relative order - where the count is greater than 2 - I have noted my analysis of these recurring roots here.
RootVs
נצח למנצח 1
זמר מזמור 1
כל בכל 2
כל כל 2
זמר אזמרה 3
שׁםשׁמך3
אבד ויאבדו 4
עשׂה עשׂית 5
שׁפט משׁפטי 5
שׁפט שׁופט 5
גוי גוים6
אבד אבדת 6
רשׁע רשׁע 6
שׁםשׁמם6
נצח לנצח 7
אבד אבד 7
שׁפט למשׁפט 8
שׁפט ישׁפט 9
שׁםשׁמך11
לא לא 11
זמר זמרו 12
לא לא 13
שׁכח שׁכח 13
כל כל 15
גוי גוים16
עשׂה עשׂו 16
שׁפט משׁפט 17
עשׂה עשׂה 17
רשׁע רשׁע 17
רשׁע רשׁעים18
כל כל 18
גוי גוים18
שׁכח שׁכחי 18
לא לא 19
נצח לנצח 19
שׁכח ישׁכח 19
אבד תאבד 19
שׁפט ישׁפטו 20
גוי גוים20
גוי גוים21
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Thursday, 10 March 2011

Psalm 10 is not so wide

Does anyone notice when I change one word in a post? (joke) I have for the first time updated my structural notes on PoC for psalms 9 and 10.

I have decided what to do with the mechanical bits - put them in an appendix. And there they stay, completely refreshable with a few keystrokes from one diagram I have made with two queries: one 'keywords by psalm', the other 'psalms by keyword'. See the page here. 

As I was doing this I noted that I had 6 judgments in psalm 9 and five nations, and 6 wicked in psalm 10 and five no's.  I wondered if that's why the poet split the psalm into two. But the patterns are not the same. Psalm 9's judgments are in three pairs and the nations are surrounded by the first two pairs, and they play a role in surrounding the hope of the poor with the third pair. The patterns in psalm 10 are different. There are 6 criminal/crime (רָשָׁע wicked) in two groups of three and five no's בַּל and three 'he said in his heart' בְּלִבֹּו - rhyming with the 'no'. [I have now changed the technique to reduce the width of the tables. See here]

Keywords in relative order - psalm 10
Root1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526Vs
עלםתעלים
concealing yourself		1
עת * לעתות
in times		1
רשׁע רשׁע
criminal		2
עני עני
poor		2
זמם* במזמות
in the purposes		2
רשׁע רשׁע
criminal		3
אוה * תאות
the desire of		3
נאץ* נאץ
that spurns		3
רשׁע רשׁע
criminal		4
בל * בל
un-		4
דרשׁ ידרשׁ
seeking		4
כל כל
multifarious		4
זמם* מזמותיו
in his purposes		4
כל בכל
in all		5
עת * עת
times		5
שׁפט משׁפטיך
your judgment		5
כל כל
all 		5
אמר אמר
he said		6
לב בלבו
in his heart		6
בל * בל
not		6
דור * לדר
from generation		6
דור * ודר
to generation		6
לא לא
not		6
רע ברע
in trouble		6
עמל עמל
ah! toil		7
סתר * במסתרים
hiding places		8
חלכה * לחלכה
the hapless		8
ארב * יארב
he lies in wait		9
סתר * במסתר
in his covering		9
ארב * יארב
he lies in wait		9
חטף* לחטוף
to seize		9
עני עני
the poor		9
חטף* יחטף
he seizes		9
עני עני
the poor		9
חלכה * חלכאים
hapless		10
לב בלבו
in his heart		11
שׁכח שׁכח
has forgotten		11
סתר * הסתיר
he hides		11
בל * בל
--		11
ראה * ראה
see		11
שׁכח תשׁכח
he will forget		12
עני עניים
the poor		12
נאץ* נאץ
does spurn		13
רשׁע רשׁע
criminal		13
אמר אמר
he said		13
לב בלבו
in his heart		13
לא לא
not		13
דרשׁ תדרשׁ
he will search		13
ראה * ראתה
regard you will		14
אתה אתה
you yourself		14
עמל עמל
of toil		14
חלכה * חלכה
the hapless		14
יתום* יתום
the orphan		14
אתה אתה
you yourself		14
רשׁע רשׁע
criminal		15
רע ורע
and eil one		15
דרשׁ תדרושׁ
and seek out		15
רשׁע רשׁעו
his crimes		15
בל * בל
till none		15
עלםעולם
now and		16
ארץמארצו
from his land		16
אוה * תאות
the value of		17
לב לבם
their heart		17
שׁפט לשׁפט
to judge		18
יתום* יתום
orphan		18
בל * בל
not		18
ארץהארץ
the earth		18
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Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Poof go the placards

I saw a man yesterday preaching about the lake of fire. He was carrying cardboard placards. Those placards won't last long. Let's hope he knows the life-guard at the lake.  Psalm 21 comments are up on PoC. Tell me what I should do with my mechanicals. (I'm off charts and into tables. But charts may make a comeback in the next 6 months.)
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Psalm 9 is very wide

Also it goes to 32 keywords - so two of them are not mapped - see if you can find which ones.
RootVs
נצח למנצח 1
מות מות 1
זמר מזמור 1
כל בכל 2
ספר אספרה 2
כל כל 2
בךבך3
זמר אזמרה 3
שׁםשׁמך3
שׁוב בשׁוב 4
איב אויבי 4
אבד 4
פנה מפניךמפניך4
עשׂה עשׂית 5
שׁפט משׁפטי 5
דיןודיני 5
כסא לכסא 5
שׁפט שׁופט 5
צדק צדק 5
גוי גוים6
אבד 6
רשׁע רשׁע 6
שׁםשׁמם6
עלםלעולם6
עד ועד 6
איב האויב 7
נצח לנצח 7
אבד 7
זכר זכרם7
המה המה 7
עלםלעולם8
ישׁב ישׁב 8
שׁפט למשׁפט 8
כסא כסאו 8
שׁפט ישׁפט 9
צדק בצדק 9
דיןידין9
שׂגב משׂגב 10
שׂגב משׂגב 10
בךבך11
ידע יודעי 11
שׁםשׁמך11
לא לא 11
דרשׁ דרשׁיך11
זמר זמרו 12
ישׁב ישׁב 12
ציוןציון12
דרשׁ דרשׁ 13
זכר זכר 13
לא לא 13
שׁכח שׁכח 13
עני עניים13
עני עניי 14
שׁער 14
מות מות 14
ספר אספרה 15
כל כל 15
שׁער 15
ציוןציון15
גוי גוים16
עשׂה עשׂו 16
שׁפט משׁפט 17
עשׂה עשׂה 17
רשׁע רשׁע 17
שׁוב ישׁובו 18
רשׁע רשׁעים18
כל כל 18
גוי גוים18
שׁכח שׁכחי 18
לא לא 19
נצח לנצח 19
שׁכח ישׁכח 19
אבד 19
עד לעד 19
אנושׁ 20
שׁפט ישׁפטו 20
גוי גוים20
פנה פניךפניך20
ידע ידעו 21
גוי גוים21
אנושׁ 21
המה המה 21
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Independent psalm pages

It just occurred to me that since I have automated one psalm, I could publish all the keyword tables as a set of linked web pages with no manual intervention at all. Since that sounds like fun and the result can be easily kept up to date, and I can do it without making people log in to our interactive tool set - I just might do it....

I could include the raw text of the psalm also ...maybe, and maybe even the automated gibberish. I will include the table of recurring roots, the roots in relative order - this gets too big for anything but a web page anyway - and the 'see also'.  Eventually I might even include the links to the published text and other online tools as well.  It will be fun for me - now if I could just make it fun for others too... it would be worth it.

Does anyone have any ideas for a layout? Here are the bits and pieces without links for Psalm 9 for example. And here are the 'problems'. I would replace the column 'Translated as' with a link since I do not have a glossary in the data.  [now I do - see sidebar text] Secondly, the Keywords in relative order require a suppression of empty columns and are limited to 30 columns in width (at present). I can automate the suppression of empty columns, but its a bit slow at the moment... [done ] The 'See also' would have links to each psalm so one could compare the frame usage between two psalms by using concurrent browser windows. []replaced as an appendix] The 'Translation' should be the same as I have online, but I have not included the extra spaces to show my prosodic suggestions - this is doable.

I could learn more html and probably code some highlights etc too.   Ideas?
[this is now an appendix with actual translations automated - see sidebar text]
Recurring sounds
etc
VerseShared ConsonantsTranslated asFirst?
9.1זמר : 3zmr--*
--נצח : 3ncx--*
--מות : 2mvt--*
9.20אנושׁ : 2)nv$--*
[the following is automated as an appendix]
See also
etc
119(3)אבד
143(3), 110(2), 106(2), 92(2), 89(4), 74(3), 69(2), 68(3), 55(2), 41(3), 31(2), 27(2), 25(2), 18(6), 13(2)איב

Keywords in relative order [automated and now translated - filterable but only be me at the moment] and significantly changed from this original form ...

the translations master copy is supported by a database - but when I make changes I have to remember to make them everywhere - not such a hot idea... but keeps me occupied
[remainder of post deleted]
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Tuesday, 8 March 2011

State of the project - plan for the next 6 months

For the record, I have combed through psalms 1-7 again, adding tables and so on - more accurate than they ever were following the 1000s of errors I have corrected. I wonder though if I will eventually put the whole framework for 'the book' into the database and publish it with the press of a button. If I could do that, it would always reflect the latest refinements.  But that is to surrender to mechanics.

I was about to let psalm 21 appear on PoC but I must catch up to it first. I struggled with psalms 55-59 and will soon pass over into the slightly happier 60s. (Brian has just posted on the acrostics, 111 and 112. A nice post.)  Each psalm I look at now benefits from the improved database and techniques, but the creative pondering juices are feeling a bit like cold syrup on this Shrove Tuesday. My thoughts and fingers are working through three places concurrently in the sticky ooze. The deeper in I get, the less it seems like a story to be told and the more it seems like a puzzle to be solved. The solving is because of the many conflicting technologies I am using.

I hope to have the entire structure formulated by September when I will begin a three month fellowship at the Centre for Study of Religion and Society at UVic.  This will be a time of research and review of this project as well as participation in other programs at the Centre. I am, in short, finally going back to school.
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Apophatic learning

I have figured out how to automate Magné's approach to diagramming the psalms. (Magné, Répétitions de mots et exegèse dans quelques psaumes et le pater (ISSN 0006-0887)).

In Psalm 1, I have promoted the negative particle for observation - it is a fly on the wall. Where else, I ask is this apophatic learning style emphasized in the psalms? Fourteen psalms have a percentage of לא  that is greater than 4% of the words. Psalm 15 is the most obvious, then psalm 131, then psalm 1, followed by psalm 115.

Keywords in relative order
Root








אשׁר אשׁרי
אשׁר אשׁר
לא לא
רשׁע רשׁעים
דרךובדרך
חטא חטאים
לא לא
לא לא
אםאם
תורה בתורת
תורה ובתורתו
אשׁר אשׁר
לא לא
אשׁר אשׁר
לא לא
כןכן
רשׁע הרשׁעים
אםאם
אשׁר אשׁר
כןכן
לא לא
רשׁע רשׁעים
חטא וחטאים
צדיק צדיקים
דרךדרך
צדיק צדיקים
דרךודרך
רשׁע רשׁעים

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