Statistics and the Sounds of Poetry.

The author suggests that mathematical formulas could provide some direct and easily understandable frameworks for analogies in literary criticism. Most studies of textual problems, he points out, either have failed to use full mathematical models or have been reckless with the inherent limits of these techniques. Enumeration of linguistic traits is very common to literary analysis, and discussions of genre and text style based on linguistic data can be very informative. There are, however, serious dangers to be considered in the choice and size of text samples, and oversimplification of qualitative features should be avoided. He suggests that the most successful studies of this type involve a consideration of syllable and word structure rather than frequency of a literary device. In the text of this paper, the author examines various treatises on language usage in literary works, and comments on their value. His discussion of the applicability of mathematical formulas to literary analysis is quite technical. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] (FB)