Anonymous Vs. attributed: Cluster analysis of tolstovskiĭ sbornik texts and its interpretation in terms of cultural heritage

Abstract

In the article, the quantitative analysis revealed lexical and semantic dominants and markers that distinguish the medieval anthology texts from each other. To verify whether three anonymous homilies in the thirteenth-century Tolstovskiĭ Sbornik might be attributed to Cyril of Turov, the authors examined the statistical distance between anonymous and already attributed texts. Using the clustering method based on the ranks of the most frequent tokens and the corresponding ranks of other texts, they constructed dendrograms that showed the text grouping. This technique allowed demonstrating the statistical proximity of six Cyril of Turov's texts, their contrast to seven Cyril of Jerusalem's texts, and the formation of the third cluster from texts of other authors. Cluster analysis made it possible to identify in Cyril of Turov's homilies several crucial thematic keys, as well as to establish such a feature of his preaching discourse as the widespread use of role deixis. The analysis confirmed the sharp difference between the anonymous Parable of Wisdom and Cyril of Turov's homilies. Separate convergences of two anonymous sermons with Cyril of Turov's homilies were discovered. However, the level of convergence in this case, as analysis has shown, contrasts sharply with the level of convergence among Cyril of Turov's homilies. It suggests that the causes of individual convergences are not associated with one person's authorship.