Alternative ways to estimate change points in multinomial sequences. An application to an authorship attribution problem

The statistical analysis of literary style is the part of stylometry that compares measurable characteristicsin a text that are rarely controlled by the author, with those in other texts. When thegoal is to settle authorship questions, these characteristics should relate to the author’s style andnot to the genre, epoch or editor, and they should be such that their variation between authors islarger than the variation within comparable texts from the same author.For an overview of the literature on stylometry and some of the techniques involved, see for exampleMosteller and Wallace (1964, 82), Herdan (1964), Morton (1978), Holmes (1985), Oakes (1998) orLebart, Salem and Berry (1998).Tirant lo Blanc, a chivalry book, is the main work in catalan literature and it was hailed to be“the best book of its kind in the world” by Cervantes in Don Quixote. Considered by writterslike Vargas Llosa or Damaso Alonso to be the first modern novel in Europe, it has been translatedseveral times into Spanish, Italian and French, with modern English translations by Rosenthal(1996) and La Fontaine (1993). The main body of this book was written between 1460 and 1465,but it was not printed until 1490.There is an intense and long lasting debate around its authorship sprouting from its first edition,where its introduction states that the whole book is the work of Martorell (1413?-1468), while atthe end it is stated that the last one fourth of the book is by Galba (?-1490), after the death ofMartorell. Some of the authors that support the theory of single authorship are Riquer (1990),Chiner (1993) and Badia (1993), while some of those supporting the double authorship are Riquer(1947), Coromines (1956) and Ferrando (1995). For an overview of this debate, see Riquer (1990).Neither of the two candidate authors left any text comparable to the one under study, and thereforediscriminant analysis can not be used to help classify chapters by author. By using sample textsencompassing about ten percent of the book, and looking at word length and at the use of 44conjunctions, prepositions and articles, Ginebra and Cabos (1998) detect heterogeneities that mightindicate the existence of two authors. By analyzing the diversity of the vocabulary, Riba andGinebra (2000) estimates that stylistic boundary to be near chapter 383.Following the lead of the extensive literature, this paper looks into word length, the use of the mostfrequent words and into the use of vowels in each chapter of the book. Given that the featuresselected are categorical, that leads to three contingency tables of ordered rows and therefore tothree sequences of multinomial observations.Section 2 explores these sequences graphically, observing a clear shift in their distribution. Section 3describes the problem of the estimation of a suden change-point in those sequences, in the followingsections we propose various ways to estimate change-points in multinomial sequences; the methodin section 4 involves fitting models for polytomous data, the one in Section 5 fits gamma modelsonto the sequence of Chi-square distances between each row profiles and the average profile, theone in Section 6 fits models onto the sequence of values taken by the first component of thecorrespondence analysis as well as onto sequences of other summary measures like the averageword length. In Section 7 we fit models onto the marginal binomial sequences to identify thefeatures that distinguish the chapters before and after that boundary. Most methods rely heavilyon the use of generalized linear models

La recepció de la narrativa catalana contemporània traduïda a l'alemany: 1975-2009

Entre l'abril de 2007 i l'abril del 2011 vaig gaudir d'un ajut FI al Departament de Traducció i Ciencies del Llenguatge de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Gràcies a aquest ajut i en el marc del programa de doctorat en Comunicació Multilingüe vaig poder dur a terme un projecte de recerca sobre la recepció de la narrativa catalana traduïda a l'alemany des de 1975 fins a l’actualitat. El primer resultat d'aquest projecte és el nou treball de recerca, llegit el novembre de 2010, en el qual intento fer un balanç de les obres de narrativa d'autors catalans publicades en alemany durant els darrers 30 anys: a partir del catàleg de totes les obres da narrativa catalana traduïdes en el període estudiat, he establert una tipologia per classificar els textos en generes i per comprovar quins autors i quines obres s'han traduït majoritàriament, per quins autors i per quins generes s'han interessat més els editors alemanys i fins a quin punt es pot considerar que aquestes traduccions representen d'una manera equilibrada narrativa catalana d'aquests anys. En el treball també he analitzat les característiques de les editorials on s'han publicat les obres traduïdes i he intentat avaluar la seva recepció, a partir de la traducció dels títols i els textos de presentació de les obres. Fet aquest primer balanç, ara estic preparant quatre articles que aprofundeixen en temes plantejats al treball de recerca i que junts han de formar la meva tesi doctoral, actualment en curs d'elaboració. A banda de la meva recerca personal, l'ajut FI també m'ha permès formar-me com a investigadora, amb la publicació d'articles, la docència al departament, la participació en congressos i, sobretot, la col•laboració amb el grup de recerca TRILCAT, d'estudis de traducció, recepció i literatura catalana.

Cultural self-identification(s) and personal social networks among first and second-generation immigrants

L’estudi examina les relacions entre (1) les xarxes socials personals de la població immigrant resident a Barcelona i (2) les seves identitats culturals múltiples. L’objectiu principal de l’estudi és entendre com el contingut i l’estructura de les relacions socials dels immigrants facilita o dificulta (1) tenir un sentiment de pertinença a les noves cultures d’acollida, la catalana i la espanyola, i (2) la integració d’aquestes noves identitats socioculturals amb la seva identitat d’origen en una nova identitat bicultural cohesiva. El nostre plantejament inicial era que els immigrants amb xarxes socials més diverses des del punt de vista de la seva composició cultural tindrien més recursos socials i experiències cognitives més diverses , factors que afavoreixen les identificacions múltiples i la participació cívica. Els resultats de l’estudi mostren que el grau d’identificació dels participants amb la seva cultura ètnica o d’origen és força alt i, en certa mesura, més alt en comparació amb les cultures d’acollida ( catalana, cívica i espanyola). Tanmateix, el vincle dels participants amb les cultures d’acollida (p. ex., la cultura catalana) és prou rellevant per a indicar una orientació bicultural (catalana i ètnica). Les anàlisis de correlacions revelen que sentir-se català no impedeix sentir-se part de la comunitat etnocultural d’origen. A més, existeix una interrelació entre l'orientació cultural catalana i la identificació amb les comunitats cíviques locals. De la mateixa manera, tenir competències en llengua catalana no va en detriment de les competències en llengua castellana. Les anàlisis també mostren que factors com l’orientació cultural catalana, l’ús del català i la identificació amb la cultura catalana tenen una correlació positiva amb el grau de chohesio de la indentitat bicultural, afavoreixen el benestar psicològic i disminueixen l’estrès aculturatiu. L’anàlisi de les xarxes socials mostra que la identificació amb la cultura catalana, l’orientació cultural catalana i la integració de la identitat són factors clau per tenir xarxes socials més diverses des del punt de vista ètnic i lingüístic, amb menys membres del col•lectiu d’origen, i amb subgrups o “cliques” culturalment més heterogenis. La identificació espanyola també prediu, en mesura més reduïda, la diversitat de les xarxes. Els nostres resultats contribueixen a la recerca actual i les teories sobre interculturalitat i identitat cultural.

Regional industrialisation without national growth: The Catalan industrialization and the growth of Spanish economy (1830-1861)

This paper has two main objectives. First, it provides a stylised descriptionof the Catalan industrial path of the period 1830-1861. Second, it reviewsthe evolution of the Catalan industry in the Spanish context and, thus, canserve to describe the relative importance of the Catalan industrialexperience. Consequently, it is mainly devoted to computing and analysing thegrowth rates of Catalan industries during the early phase of industrialisation.The results show that Catalonia experienced a true process ofindustrialisation during the period 1830 to 1861, but that its contributionin rapid increase in Spanish GDP was relatively small.

Like Man, Like Woman: Roman Women, Gender Qualities and Conjugal Relationships at the Turn of the First Century

Modern scholarship often discusses Roman women in terms of their difference from their male counterparts, frequently defining them as 'other'. This book shows how Roman male writers at the turn of the first century actually described women as not so different from men: the same qualities and abilities pertaining to the domains of parenthood, intellect and morals are ascribed by writers to women as well as to men. There are two voices, however: a traditional, ideal voice and an individual, realistic voice. This creates a duality of representations of women, which recurs across literary genres and reflects a duality of mentality. How can we interpret the paradoxical information about Roman women given by the male-authored texts? How does this duality of mentality inform us about gender roles and gender hierarchy? This work analyses well-known, as well as overlooked, passages from the writings of Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, Suetonius, Quintilian, Statius, Martial and Juvenal and sheds new light on Roman views of women and their abilities, on the notions of private and public and on conjugal relationships. In the process, the famous sixth satire of Juvenal is revisited and its topic reassessed, providing further insights into the complex issues of gender roles, marriage and emotions. By contrasting representations of women across a broad spectrum of literary genres, this book provides consistent findings that have wide significance for the study of Latin literature and the social history of the late first and early second centuries.

Velar verbs and verbal classes in catalan

There is in Catalan a set of verbs, the so-called «velar verbs», whose differential characteristic consists in presenting a velar segment between the root and the inflectional suffixes in certain morphosyntactic contexts. This velar segment has traditionally been considered as being part of the root in the contexts where it occurs, and has been made responsible for the typical allomorphic character of velar verbs. Under the assumption that regular verbs are only one-root verbs, velar verbs have been treated as irregular verbs. Nevertheless, neither the phonic character of the velar segment nor the marginal character of velar verbs is clear. The aim of this paper is to present a different account of velar verbs on the basis of the inflectional morphological character of the velar segment. The work is split into two parts. The first one focuses on standard Catalan, and tries to show that in this variety velar verbs are better treated as regular verbs. The second one focuses on other Catalan varieties, and aims to exhibit the incoherence implied in the traditional treatment of velar verbs in the context of the Catalan language as a whole. The discussion is mainly developed on morphological grounds, halfway between theory and description.

Presència de Rousseau a Catalunya: entre el mite i la realitat

En aquest article s’ofereix un perfil del pensament de Rousseau a partir de la seva relació amb la filosofia estoica i la seva dependència respecte de les idees de Montaigne, alhora que es remarca —atenint-se a la Professió de fe del vicari savoià— la dimensió religiosa i espiritual de la seva cosmovisió. Sobre la base d’aquests supòsits es revisa l’impacte de les idees de Rousseau en el Romanticisme del segle xix, sense perdre de vista les crítiques que la seva pedagogia va merèixer dels ideòlegs del Noucentisme (Eugeni d’Ors, Joaquim Xirau). Finalment, es conclou que la presència de la pedagogia de Rousseau en el Moviment de Renovació Pedagògica, viscut durant les primeres dècades del segle xx a Catalunya, constitueix més un horitzó que no pas una realitat bastida sistemàticament i sòlidament.

Translation and validation of the Ten-Item-Personality Inventory into spanish and catalan

In response to an increasing need for ever-shorter personality instruments, Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swann (2003) developed the Ten-Item-Personality Inventory (TIPI), which measures the dimensions of the Five Factor Model (FFM) using 10 items (two for each dimension) and can be administered in about one minute. In two studies and using a multi-judge (self and observer) and multi-instrument design, we develop Spanish (Castilian) and Catalan versions of the TIPI and evaluate them in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent, discriminant, and content validity, as well as self-observer correlations. Test-retest correlations were strong, and convergence with the NEO-PI-R factors was significant. There were also strong correlations between observer ratings and the participants’ self-ratings. Despite some inconsistencies with respect to the Agreeableness scale, the Catalan translation and both translations into Spanish of the original TIPI demonstrated sufficient psychometric properties to warrant use as a Five Factor personality measure when the use of longer instruments is not convenient or possible. Furthermore, as the first translation of a brief standard Big Five Instrument into Catalan, this work should facilitate future research on personality in the Catalan-speaking population.

The Catalan migration to New York. A view from La Llumanera de Nova York (1874-1881)

The first issue of La Llumanera de Nova York came out in November 1874 and was not published until 1881. The challenge was certainly complicated: editing a newspaper in Catalan in New York, with the aim of influencing a group of potential readers who were distributed in the United States and, at the same time, become a medium that would bring the ideas of a new era, both from a political and cultural point of view

The Francoist repression in the Catalan Countries

This article offers an overview of Francoist repression in the Catalan Countries from the outbreak of the Civil War to the first decade after the establishment of the dictatorship. It covers both physical violence and measures such as economic repression, imprisonment, professional purges and the social and moral control to which the population as a whole was subjected. First the type of violence and domination exercised by the insurgents in the territories occupied is briefly examined. Then the author offers an account of the events: she commences in the summer of 1936 in Majorca, the only Catalan-speaking territory to remain in rebel hands, then proceeds to the Lleida region, which was occupied in the spring of 1938, and concludes with the final offensive against Catalonia and Valencia, launched in the winter of that same year. Special stress is laid on the repercussions of the 1939 Law of Political Responsibilities and the meaning attached by the occupiers to the pacification and reconstruction of the conquered territories.

The state's response to the Catalan question : an emerging ethnic component in contemporary Spanish nationalism?

Peer-reviewed

The state's response to the Catalan question : an emerging ethnic component in contemporary Spanish nationalism?

Peer-reviewed

Online and Offline Participation at the Local Level : A Quantitative Analysis of the Catalan Municipalities

This paper presents a first analysis on local electronic participatory experiences in Catalonia. The analysis is based on a database constructed and collected by the authors. The paper carries out an explanatory analysis of local initiatives in eparticipationand off line participation taking into account political variables (usually not considered in this kind of analysis) but also classical socio-economic variables that characterise municipalities. Hence, we add a quantitative analysis to the numerous case studies on local e-participation experiences. We have chosen Catalonia because is one of the European regions with more initiatives and one that has enjoyed considerable local governmental support to citizen participation initiatives since the 80s. The paper offers a characterisation of these experiences and a first explanatory analysis, considering: i) the institutional context in which these experiences are embedded, ii) the characteristics of the citizen participation processes and mechanisms on-line, and iii) a set of explanatory variables composed by the population size, thepolitical adscription of the mayor, the electoral abstention rate, age, income and level ofeducation in the municipality. The model that we present is explanatory for the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants but it is not for the fewer than 20,000inhabitants. Actually, the number of participatory activities developed by these last municipalities is very low. Among all the variables, population size becomes the mostinfluential variable. Political variables such as political party of the mayor and the localabstention rate have a certain influence but that have to be controlled by population size.

Les Sentències catòliques del diví poeta Dant (1545) d’en Jaume Ferrer de Blanes: edició crítica del text

Procurador reial i nobiliari, cosmògraf, joier, lapidari, mercader i escriptor, i al capdavall, un ciutadà català honrat, en Ferrer (Vidreres, ~1445 – Blanes, 1529) va marxar de ben jove, primer, a la cort de Nàpols, al servei del rei en Ferran I, i després a la cort de Sicília, al servei de la reina na Joana de Sicília. Acabada aquesta peripècia italiana va tornar a Blanes al servei del vescomte de Cabrera i de Bas fins que va morir a la mateixa vila al 1529. Un seu criat, disset anys més tard, va editar uns papers esparsos que havia trobat a can Ferrer, les (sic) Sentèncias cathòlicas del diví poeta Dant florentí, compilades per lo prudentíssim mossèn Jaume Ferrer de Blanes, incloent-hi tres parts. La primera, Conclusions, és un sumari destinat a mostrar (sic) «Entre totas las cosas necessàries a l’home per aconseguir lo seu fi y beatitut eterna principalment són tres»; la segona, Meditació, és una reflexió a fi d’il•luminar els misteris sobre la passió i mort de Jesucrist a (sic) «lo santíssim loch de Calvari»; la tercera, Letras, és un conjunt de dotze documents, entre cartes i d’altres textos, «fetas a mossèn Jaume Ferrer, respostes e regles per ell ordenades en cosmographia y en art de navegar». En Ferrer, home de grans recursos, fa un recorregut per tots els coneixements que havia acumulat al llarg de la seva vida, de Dant Alighieri a Ptolemeu i del marquès de Santillana a Albert Gran o a Aristòtil, fent servir fragments de la Commedia, dels Proverbios, de la Bíblia i de moltes altres autoritats científiques i filosòfiques, en català, italià, espanyol, llatí i, també, set mots en arameu