QuotationFinder – Searching for Quotations and Allusions

The software programs generally used with the TLG (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae) [http1] and the CLCLT (CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts) [http2] CD-ROMs are not well suited for finding quotations and allusions. QuotationFinder [http3] uses more sophisticated criteria as it ranks search results based on how closely they match the source text, listing search results with literal quotations first and loose verbal parallels last. keywords quotation; allusion; Greek; Latin; antiquity; search INTRODUCTION When looking for Greek and Latin quotations or allusions using standard search functions, a search with a Boolean “or” would yield too many matches. A search with a Boolean “and,” however, would yield too few, as ancient authors often left out words when quoting without us having a chance to know in advance which ones they would keep. QuotationFinder produces better search results by using five criteria for determining if a given text is a quotation or an allusion: number and forms of words matched, their proximity to each other, how rare they are, and in what sequence they occur. I QUOTING IN ANTIQUITY Designing software algorithms for finding quotations and allusions is not as straightforward as it may seem. In antiquity, authors did not use quotation marks or italics (though copyists or editors may have added these,) so that there is no simple obvious token in the text that search software could work with. In some contexts, one single word that the target and the source text have in common may suffice to constitute an allusion – for example if the context in the target names the source text, its author, the character originally uttering the word, or a phrase like “as it is written” (cf. [Schwerdtner, 2015] p. 26-27, [Plett, 1991] p. 9.) Authors may quote verbatim or they may assimilate the material to the target context (cf. [Plett 1988] p. 70-71.) Variations regarding syntax and semantics may occur – omissions, additions, changes in word forms, substitutions of words, etc. (cf. [Plett, 1991] p. 9.) Formally, quotations vary greatly from each other (cf. [Schwerdtner, 2015] p. 25.39.) Quotation search engines should not be rigid in the way they look for formal features typical of quotations. The best approach seems to be to establish a score for every feature and rank potential quotations and allusions based on the sum of the scores they achieve regarding each of the features (cf. [Tischer, 2010] p. 103-106.)