Re-approaching new stemmatics
Choice of relationship revealing readings for cladistic analysis
Abstract
AIM This paper presents preliminary results of my research in the methodological field of computer-assisted stemmatics. It explores the possibilities of applying phylogenetic systematics for textual traditions, as well as discusses the controversies regarding the methodological principles within the field of new stemmatics, such as choice of relationship revealing readings. Additionally, it presents the results of the experiments I have conducted employing the PHYLIP package — a free package of programs for inferring phylogenies, developed by Felsenstein (2005) — aimed to asses an influence of a sample size and types of variants on the results of cladistic analysis. The oldest manuscripts of "Hrómundar saga Gripssonar" — a post-medieval Icelandic saga preserved in 36 manuscripts — served as a case study for the second part of my presentation. METHODS Similarities between theoretical assumptions behind cladistics and stemmatology have been explicitly presented by Howe, Barbrook, Mooney and Robinson (2004) in the second volume of "Studies in Stemmatology". An application of computer-assisted methods, originating from phylogenetics, to answer the questions of textual criticism, has been recognized in an academic discourse as a powerful tool in revealing manuscripts’ filiation. Yet, there is a disagreement regarding the fundamental question: what kind of textual variation can, or should, be used for analysis? Salemans (1996) suggested a set of strictly systematized classification of parsimony informative variants, while Robinson (1996) has claimed that all types of variants should be analyzed, including linguistic variants. Another question that arose recently is a role of small samples in the tree-building process, as discussed by Hall and Parsons (2013). It seems obvious that philologists for centuries used some sort of sampling to reveal manuscript filiation, however they usually did not discuss their sampling procedure, nor publish underlying samples. This attitude does not belong to the age of open scholarship, which requires access to data to allow replication of experiments. This paper takes an experimental approach towards the mentioned problems, thus a number of tests have been conducted to support the claims made by the author, discussed below in the “Main Findings” section. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The experiments I have conducted sought answers for the following questions:- How does linguistic variation influence the manuscripts' filiation?
- How to choose a relationship revealing variants?
- Are complete transcriptions of all witnesses necessary to conduct a computer-assisted analysis?
- If not, how small can a sample be? Can analysis be based only on loci critici?
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