Hermeneuti.ca – The Rhetoric of Text Analysis

I'm working my way through the introduction and rereading Descartes Discourse on Method. I'm intrigued by the building/construction metaphor that runs through the text. What he skips over, but which is implied, is that there is a phase (for D it was 9 years) of deconstructing the assumptions of others with which you are burdened. He jumps over that to the reconstruction from clear and distinct ideas starting with the Cogito.

The difficulty is locating just how Descartes influences modern ideas of practice and method. The work operates on three levels,

1. The story of what he did starting with retreating into a room with a stove. (Part 2)
2. The method that he developed in that retreat for rebuilding his metaphysics on certainty. (Part 2)
3. The provisional moral code he describes for living by while you are deconstructing and rebuilding. (Part 3)

There are interesting overlaps between the three levels and some differences. The provisional code says to live by the customs and laws of the land, while the method and story of practice start with doubting everything.

I outlined the concluding chapter on a theory of tools and started fleshing stuff from Simon and Simulation of Human Thought.

We all know that the Google display comes indirectly from the Concordance A concordance is a gathering of passages that "concord" or agree. Usually it is a gathering of passages with a sought for word. Concordances are a form of reading tool that go back to the Middle Ages. They are typically lists of words with their appearances. A concordance for the bible, for example, would have entries for all the content words of the bible in alphabetical order. Each entry would include information about where the word appears and some context. Searching for words on a computer now typically returns a concordance called a Key Word in Context (KWIC) with the sought word down the center and a few words of context on either side. Google returns a type of concordance when you search for a word with an example of the word in context for each page it recommends. See the Wikipedia entry on Concordance (Publishing) Return to Glossary., but I have found in Luhn's 1966 "Keyword-in-ContextIn text analysis, context refers to the text surrounding a string of characters, which may be as short as a word or as long as a paragraph. Context is particularly important when generating a concordance for a string. Return to Glossary. Index for Technical Literature (KwicA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary. Index)" the explicit recognition of the link and the reason for drawing on the concordance A concordance is a gathering of passages that "concord" or agree. Usually it is a gathering of passages with a sought for word. Concordances are a form of reading tool that go back to the Middle Ages. They are typically lists of words with their appearances. A concordance for the bible, for example, would have entries for all the content words of the bible in alphabetical order. Each entry would include information about where the word appears and some context. Searching for words on a computer now typically returns a concordance called a Key Word in Context (KWIC) with the sought word down the center and a few words of context on either side. Google returns a type of concordance when you search for a word with an example of the word in context for each page it recommends. See the Wikipedia entry on Concordance (Publishing) Return to Glossary..

the significance of such single keywords could, in most instances, be determined only by referring to the statement from which the keyword had been chosen. This somewhat tedious procedure may be alleviated to a significant degree by listing selected keywords together with surrounding words that act as modifiers pointing up the more specific sense in which a keyword has been applied. This method of indexing words is well established in the process of compiling concordancesA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary. of important works of literature of the past. The added degree of information conveyed by such keyword-in-contextIn text analysis, context refers to the text surrounding a string of characters, which may be as short as a word or as long as a paragraph. Context is particularly important when generating a concordance for a string. Return to Glossary. indexes, or "KWICA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary. Indexes" for short, can readily be provided by automatic processing. (p. 161)

The problem for Luhn is that simply retrieving words doesn't give you a sense of their use. His solution is to provide some contenxt (hence "keyword-in-contextIn text analysis, context refers to the text surrounding a string of characters, which may be as short as a word or as long as a paragraph. Context is particularly important when generating a concordance for a string. Return to Glossary.") so that readers can disambiguate and make decisions. It is from the KWICA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary. that we ultimately get features of the Google display. Luhn explicitly acknowledges that this is a method well estabilished in concordancesA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary.. Did he know about concordancesA concordance or keyword in context (KWIC) is usually represented as a list of occurrences of a word with some limited context shown (words to the left and words to the right). Here is an example that shows the occurrences of the word "dream" in A Midsummer Night's Dream in TACTweb: I.1/577.1 | Four nights will quickly dream away the time; | And I.1/578.2 Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; | Brief as the II.2/585.1 | Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here! | Lysander, III.2/591.1 this derision | Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision, | IV.1/593.1 as the fierce vexation of a dream. | But first I will IV.1/594.2 to me | That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think | The IV.1/594.2 rare | vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to IV.1/594.2 the wit of man to | say what dream it was: man is but an IV.1/594.2 he go | about to expound this dream. Methought I was--there IV.1/594.2 his heart to report, what my dream | was. I will get Peter IV.1/594.2 to write a ballad of | this dream: it shall be called IV.1/594.2 it shall be called Bottom's dream, | because it hath no V.1/599.1 | Following darkness like a dream, | Now are frolic: not a V.1/599.2 theme, | No more yielding but a dream, | Gentles, do not See also the definition at Wikipedia. Return to Glossary. because Father Busa was being supported by IBM which is where Luhn worked?

I'm working on the Rhetoric Chapter. Got images up. That and the Intro are my focus.

I updated the Manual with a new introduction.

We are getting close to a polished prospectus.

• I updated the letter
• I'm working on the Introduction to make it read more as an introduction that tells readers what they will get in the rest.
• I've looked at the Voyeur docs and have some thoughts on how to introduce

We've moved the domain to a TAPoR server at McMaster to get better performance than the shared commercial server where it was hosted before. This will also make it easier for us to host Voyeur tools at voyeur.hermeneuti.ca (though the tools aren't yet available).

We are closing in on a prospectus and sample chapters:

• We have a prospectus written
• We have a new version of the site for demonstration purposes
• We have an introduction to the Voyeur (which Geoffrey needs to read)
• We have an introduction for the work that needs more work.
• We are putting Now Analyze That up with the Voyeur tools
• Next we need a recipe and we need the Rhetoric of Text Analysis.

Getting there.

I’ve taken a new tack on the case study on Humanist, renaming the essay “The sparrow flies swiftly through”.