Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 8 September 2018

Word detectives: Close look at word choice could ID writer

By SETH BORENSTEIN when a British newspaper
AP Science Writer got a tip that the book
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lan- "The Cuckoo's Calling" by
guage detectives say the Robert Galbraith was really
key clues to who wrote written by Harry Potter au-
the anonymous New York thor J.K. Rowling. In about
Times opinion piece slam- an hour, Juola fed two
ming President Donald Rowling books, "The Cuck-
Trump may not be the odd oo's Calling" and six other
and glimmering "lodestar," novels into his computer,
but the itty-bitty words that analyzed the language
people usually read right patterns with four different
over: "I," "of" and "but." systems and concluded
And lodestar? That could that Rowling did it.
be a red herring meant A couple of days later,
to throw sleuths off track, Rowling confessed.
some experts say. It was far from the first time
Experts use a combination that language use fingered
of language use, statistics the real culprit. The Una-
and computer science to bomber's brother identi-
help figure out who wrote fied him because of of his
documents that are anon- distinctive writing style.
ymous or possibly plagia- Field pioneers helped find
rized. They've even solved a kidnapper who used the
crimes and historical mys- unique term "devil strip" for
teries that way. Some call the grassy area between
the field forensic linguistics, the sidewalk and road. The
others call it stylometry or phrase is only used in parts
simply doing "author attri- of Ohio.
bution." Even in politics, words are
The field is suddenly at cen- poker tells. In 1996, the nov-
ter stage after an unidenti- In this April 25, 2006, file photo, Robert Leonard, a Hofstra University college professor teaching el "Primary Colors" about a
fied "senior administration forensic linguistics, lectures to students at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Clintonesque presidential
official" wrote in the Times Associated Press candidate set Washington
that he or she was part of abuzz trying to figure out
a "resistance" movement Times' description as a se- "We all use them but we have to be gathered and who was the anonymous
working from within the ad- nior administration official don't use them in the same have to be similar, such as author. An analysis by a
ministration to curb Trump's and could be the author. way," Juola says. "We don't all opinion columns as op- Vassar professor and other
most dangerous impulses. The key would be to look at use them in the same fre- posed to novels, speeches work pointed to News-
"My phone has been ringing how they write, the words quency." Same goes with or magazine stories. week's Joe Klein and he fi-
off the hook with requests they use, what words they apostrophes and other Rachel Greenstadt at Drex- nally admitted it.
to do that analysis and I just put next to each other, punctuation. el University studies when But the literary sleuthing
don't have the time," says spelling, punctuation and For example, do you say people try to throw off in- goes back to the founding
Duquesne University com- even tenses, experts say. "different from" or "different vestigators with words they of the republic. Historians
puter and language scien- "Language is a set of choic- than?" asks computer sci- don't normally use or pur- had a hard time figuring
tist Patrick Juola. es. What to say, how to say ence and data expert Sh- poseful bad spellings. She out which specific Federal-
Robert Leonard, a Hofstra and when to say it,"Juola lomo Argamon of the Illinois says her first instinct is that ist Papers were written by
University linguistics profes- says. "And there's a lot of Institute of Technology. the word "lodestar" — one Alexander Hamilton and
sor who has helped solve different options." Women tend to use first- Vice President Mike Pence which were by James Mad-
murders by examining One of the favorite tech- and second-person pro- has used several times — is ison. A 1963 statistical anal-
language, says if experts niques of Juola and other nouns more — "I," ''me" and "a red herring." It seems too ysis figured it out: One of the
could get the right number experts is to look at what's "you" — and more present deliberate. many clues came down to
of writing samples from of- called "function words." tense, Argamon says. "Most people are still look- usage of the words "while"
ficials whose identities are These are words people Men use "the," ''of," ''this" ing for sound bite-sized fea- and "whilst." Madison used
known, "an analysis could use all the time but that are and "that" more often, he tures like lodestar instead "whilst"; Hamilton preferred
certainly be done." hard to define because says. of trying to get a handle "while."
One political scientist fig- they more provide func- "You look for clues and you on the whole picture," says Juola says experts in the
ures there are about 50 tion than meaning. Some try to assess the usefulness Hofstra's Leonard. field can generally tell intro-
people in the Trump ad- examples are "of," ''with," of those clues," Argamon Greenstadt says language verts from extroverts, men
ministration who fit the ''the," ''a," ''over" and "and." says. But he is less optimis- analysis "could kind of con- from women, education
tic that the Trump opinion tribute to the picture" of level, age, location, almost
piece case will be cracked who wrote the Times' opin- everything but astrological
for various reasons, includ- ion pieces, but she adds sign.
ing the New York Times' ed- "by itself, I'd be concerned "The science is very good,"
iting for style and possible to use it." Juola said. "It's not quite
efforts to fool language Still, with the right condi- DNA. It's actually consid-
detectives with words that tions words matter. ered by some scientists to
someone else likes to use Juola testified in about 15 be considered the sec-
such as "lodestar." Mostly, trials and handled even ond-most accurate form
he's pessimistic because to more cases that never of forensic identification
do a proper comparison, made it to court. His big- we have because it is so
samples from all suspects gest case was in 2013, good."q