Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Shaw, Carl
Area of Concentration
Classics
Abstract
Growing available data and Natural Language Processing advances have provided classicists with a new method of research. Utilizing this new method, this thesis will offer a computational approach to an old philological debate that asks whether Latin poets wrote verse with the intention of creating coincidence between the strong metrical beat (ictus) and accent. I argue that ictus-accent coincidence in Latin poetry was not intentional, but rather a statistical inevitability since both Latin meter and Latin pronunciation position their stress on long syllables. To substantiate this argument, I propose a study in which I created a program that scans Ancient Greek texts with Latin accentuation rules to determine the rates of ictusaccent coincidence and clash, and to see if Ancient Greek produces similar rates of coincidence when benefiting from the same accent rules as Latin. Chapter 1 provides background on Greek and Latin accentuation and meter, while chapter 2 reviews arguments put forth by classical scholars from both sides of the debate. In chapter 3, I discuss my methods and program, and propose improvements to better address specific arguments of intentional ictus-accent coincidence in Latin poetry.
Recommended Citation
Erickson, Andy, "A Comparative Computational Approach to an Old Philological Question: Examining ictus-accent coincidence in Ancient Greek and Latin verse." (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5682.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5682