A Markov chain is a mathematical process that can be used to answer questions such as these:
If the current letter I am reading is a vowel, what is the probability
that the next letter will be a vowel? A consonant?
Answers from these may be combined to create more lengthy predictions -- about the 3rd letter after a given one, or the 10th -- and so on.
A recent article by Brian Hayes in American Scientist (brought to my attention by Greg Coxson) alerted me to the fact that it is 100 years since the Russian mathematician A. A. Markov (1856 - 1922) announced his findings about these transition probabilities -- and, moreover, his work was based on analysis of poetry; the poetry was Eugene Onegin, a verse-novel in iambic tetrameter by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837). Markov's analyis dealt with Pushkin's novel as a long string of
alphabetic characters and he tabulated the categories of vowels and
consonants for about 20,000 letters. (For a host of details, visit Hayes' careful and interesting article.)
Showing posts with label verse-novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label verse-novel. Show all posts
Saturday, August 10, 2013
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