Key Cluster Patterns in Shakespeare

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Key Cluster Patterns in Shakespeare

• 2009 Aston Symposium
• 22 May 2009
• Mike Scott

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in pursuit of the

• "cunning'st pattern of excelling nature" (Othello)

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or

• but sound and fury signifying nothing?

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Abstract

• Key words (KWs) in Shakespeare plays have been
  shown to belong to certain category-types such as
  theme-related KWs, character-related KWs.
• Other KWs, generally the more interesting ones,
  seem to be pointers to other patterns indicative
  of quite specific features of the language, or of
  the status of characters or of individual
  sub-themes.
• It may be that there is a tension between global
  KWs and much more localised, "bursty" ones in
  this regard. 
• The presentation turns attention now to key word
  clusters, that is n-grams which are shown to
  occur distinctively in each individual play, or
  in the speeches of an individual character. The
  diverse types of patterns are what will be
  explored here.
• Are n-grams a mere coincidence of relatively
  frequent words co-occurring frequently so that
  they are but sound and fury signifying nothing?

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• Alas poor Yorick!
• Double, double toil and trouble
• And thereby hangs a tale
• Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears
• A blinking idiot
• Beggar'd all description

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yet

• Crystal Crystal (2002) only list one-word
  headwords

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Aims

• take previous key word (KW) analysis of
  Shakespeare plays up one level
• by examining KW clusters

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a proviso
keyness

• no claim to illuminate understanding of the
  plays,
• the objective being to understand more about
  keyness and key words

clusters
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Clusters

• sequences of consecutive words repeatedly found
  in corpora
• Biber's "bundles"
• n-grams
• no guarantee they are "phrases"
• In WordSmith,
• n is between 2 and 8

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Why bother?

• (increasing awareness that words don't act alone
• and anyway some inconsistencies e.g.
• "behind" v. "in front of"
• "France" v. "Saudi Arabia" v. "United Arab
  Emirates")

but hang about in gangs)
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So how should we think about words?

• When you pick up a word,
• you pick up another two
• or three.

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Keyness

• A word is said to be "key" if
• a)        it occurs in the text at least as many
  times as the user has specified as a Minimum
  Frequency
• b)        its frequency in the text when compared
  with its frequency in a reference corpus is such
  that the statistical probability as computed by
  an appropriate procedure is smaller than or equal
  to a p value specified by the user.
• (WordSmith manual)

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KW Clusters

• re-interpreting "word" to include "cluster"
• so the questions are
• How much overlap is there between KWs and KW
  clusters?
• What (if anything) do key clusters show that KWs
  don't?

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Procedures

• with the 1916 OUP Shakespeare corpus at my site
• build one overall "index" which knows the
  positions and neighbours of each word in all 37
  plays
• compute 2-word clusters using the index
• build one individual index for each of the plays
• compute 2-word clusters for each play using its
  index

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Procedures (cont.)

• repeat previous steps for all lengths of cluster
  2 to 5
• result 38 indexes
• 37 4 152 individual play cluster wordlists
• 4 cluster wordlists for the set of 37 plays

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single-word list (all the plays)
pure grammar
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2-word clusters
I AUX incomplete prepositional phrases
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3-word clusters
negatives
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4-word clusters
requesting etc., social interactions
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5-word clusters
social formulae
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Procedures (cont.)

• compare the 2-cluster wordlists of each play with
  the 2-cluster wordlist of all the plays
• repeat for 3-, 4- and 5-word clusters
• 37 4 148 key cluster lists

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KW settings

• p value 0.001
• minimum frequency 2
• negative KW clusters excluded

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Key 3-clusters in Lear
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just a title
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repetition!

• When we are born, we cry that we are come
• To this great stage of fools. This' a good block!
• It were a delicate stratagem to shoe
• A troop of horse with felt I'll put it in proof,
• And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
• Then, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!

(Lear)
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more repetition!

• And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
• Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
• And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
• Never, never, never, never, never!
• Pray you, undo this button thank you, sir.
• Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,
• Look there, look there!
• lt/LEARgt
• ltSTAGE DIRgt
• ltDies.gt
• lt/STAGE DIRgt

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Character-specific

• the foul fiend (Edgar)
• Tom's a cold (Edgar)
• i' the middle (Fool)

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theme of the play

• dost thou know?
• thou know me?

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speech-specific, rhythmic

• Have more than thou showest,
• Speak less than thou knowest,
• Lend less than thou owest,
• Ride more than thou goest,
• Learn more than thou trowest,
• Set less than thou throwest
• Leave thy drink and thy whore,
• And keep in-a-door,
• And thou shalt have more
• Than two tens to a score

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RQ 1 (How much overlap is there between KWs and
KW clusters?) Procedure

• For selected plays (Hamlet, Romeo, Henry IV part
  1, As You Like It)
• Save the column of single word KWs as a plain
  text file
• Save the column of 2-cluster KWs as a separate
  file too
• Save the columns of 3-, 4- and 5-cluster KWs
  likewise
• Make wordlists of these "texts"
• Compute "detailed consistency" of these wordlists
• Use "Set" function to classify items which appear
  in various listings
• Identify the percentage of words which appear in
  the KW-cluster lists but not in the single word
  KW listings vice-versa
• Identify items which appear in numerous listings.

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Romeo and Juliet

• There are 43 (207-117 90) of the KWs which
  come into the 2-,3-,4-,or 5-word KW clusters but
  are absent from the single KW list.
• 2s not found in the single KW list include high
  frequency grammar items (THE, MY, AT, TO etc.)
• 2s which are not found elsewhere in any cluster
  include SHALL
• 3s not found elsewhere include TELL, WHERE
• 4s not found elsewhere include COMMEND

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types in KW list but not in KW clusters (A-C)

• AH, ALACK, AN, APOTHECARY, BED, BENVOLIO,
  CAPULET, CLOUDS, CORDS, CORSE

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Common to 4 or 5 KW listings

• HER, O, SILVER, A, ART, BOTH, JULE, LADY, PLAGUE,
  SOUND, THOU, THY, WITH YOUR

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As You Like It

• There are 48 (190-98 92) KWs which come into
  the 2-,3-,4-,or 5-word KW clusters but are absent
  from the single KW list.
• 2s not found in the single KW list include high
  freq. grammar items (THE, OF, FOR, AND)
• 2s which are not found elsewhere include HIM, WHO
• 3s not found elsewhere include AT, WOULD

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types in KW list but not in KW clusters (A-C)

• ADAM, ALIENA, AMBLES, AURDEY, BEARDS, CELIA,
  CHARLES, CLOWN, COUNTERFEITED, COUTIER'S,
  COVERED, COZ, CURED

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Henry IV part 1

• There are 43 (204-117 87) KWs which come into
  the 2-,3-,4-,or 5-word KW clusters but are absent
  from the single KW list.
• 2s not found in the single KW list include high
  frequency grammar items (IN, TO, YOU) but also
  SIR, TRUE
• 2s which are not found elsewhere include TWO,
  FEAR, FIRE, CUDGEL
• 3s not found elsewhere include WELL, WHY, FATHER
• 4s not found elsewhere include GIVE, ARE, DOOR,
  LET

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types in KW list but not in KW clusters (A-C)

• AFOOT, BANISH, BARDOLPH, CLIFTON, COMPULSION,
  COUNTERFEIT, COWARD

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Hamlet

• There are (44) 140-79 61 KWs which come into
  the 2-,3-,4-,or 5-word KW clusters but are absent
  from the single KW list.
• 2s not found in the single KW list include high
  freq. grammar items (MY, AND OF) but also GOOD
• 2s which are not found elsewhere include FROM, O,
  OUR, IS, IN
• 3s not found elsewhere include HOW, LIFE, EXCEPT,
  YOUR, REVENGE, NOT, OWN

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types in KW list but not in KW clusters (A-C)

• ACT, ARGAL, BERNARDO, CLOSES, CUSTOM

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Common to 3 or 4 KW listings

• NUNNERY, A, HAMLET, HAVE, I, IT, LORD, OPHELIA,
  THE, TO, WAGER

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RQ 1 How much overlap is there between KWs and
KW clusters?

• More than 50 of the single-word KWs are in the
  clusters
• but the clusters add some 40 or more extra words
  
• not all additions are grammatical
• Key clusters tail off at 4 or 5

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at 4 Kws, which play is this?
midsummer night's dream
all's well that ends well
anthony cleopatra
"bursty" keyness?
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bursts (1)
midsummer night's dream
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bursts (2)
julius caesar
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bursts (3)
macbeth
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bursts of burstiness
as you like it
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compare burstinesses?
king lear 2s (part)
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3s and 4s
king lear
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Conclusions

• How much overlap is there between KWs and KW
  clusters?
• Only a moderate amount they highlight different
  aspects of the play
• What (if anything) do key clusters show that KWs
  don't?
• At the extremes they may highlight songs and very
  localised bursts in the play but by no means
  always or only this

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• ltSHALLOWgt
• It is well said, in faith, sir and it is well
  said indeed too. 'Better accommodated!' it is
  good yea indeed, is it good phrases are surely
  and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated! it
  comes of accommodo very good a good phrase.
• lt/SHALLOWgt
• ltBARDOLPHgt
• Pardon me, sir I have heard the word. 'Phrase,'
  call you it? By this good day, I know not the
  phrase but I will maintain the word with my
  sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of
  exceeding good command, by heaven. Accommodated
  that is, when a man is, as they say,
  accommodated or, when a man is, being, whereby,
  a' may be thought to be accommodated, which is an
  excellent thing.
• lt/BARDOLPHgt

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References

• Crystal, David Ben Crystal, 2002. Shakespeare's
  words. London Penguin.

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