Short Text: Experiment in Quantitative Analysis
The method of quantitative text analysis is usually associated with vast corpora of text utilized to solve problems of attribution, dating, data mining, etc. The article is aimed to demonstrate that quantitative analysis can be used for the study of short pieces a few stanza long. The research deals with the 12 lines long poem «The name – of it – is Autumn» by Emily Dickinson, a famous American poet. The feature set is based on metaphorical models realized in the text, lexical units representing them, morphological classes of words, characteristics of syntax including verse syntax and rhythm. The conducted study has demonstrated that counting elements of text, which belong to different levels and aspects of verse text, makes it possible to reveal text inner structure, as well as the ways and the means used for the presentation of authorial metaphoric and spacial picture of the world. There is a positive correlation between the author’s use of semantic and linguistic means, whose frequency is also interrelated with the alteration of statics vs. dynamics ratio in the poetic world.The obtained data point at the possibility and necessity to apply the methodology of quantitative analysis even in the study of a limited size texts.