By their (new) words shall ye know them: Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring, andThe Buccaneers | Language Resources and Evaluation
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By their (new) words shall ye know them: Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring, andThe Buccaneers

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Abstract

Reviewers are sharply divided about the success with which Marion Mainwaring “completed” Edith Wharton's unfinished novelThe Buccaneers. To gauge the “seamlessness” of the fit between Wharton's portion of the novel and the chapters that Mainwaring added, the present study presents a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the ratio of new types (i.e., words that did not appear in previous chapters) to tokens. Analysis of Wharton's classic novelsThe House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, andThe Age of Innocence indicates that the ratio of new types to tokens followed a standard progression in her work. Analysis of Wharton's twenty-nine chapters ofThe Buccaneers indicates that here, too, she was following the same course. However, analysis of the “completed” version ofThe Buccaneers reveals that the substitution of Mainwaring for Wharton as author caused a decisive break from the well established pattern.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, The George Washington University, 20015, Washington, D.C., USA

    Lee Sigelman

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  1. Lee Sigelman
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Lee Sigelman is Professor and Chair of Political Science at The George Washington University. His research interests range widely throughout the social sciences, including research methods, mass communication, political behavior, and popular culture. With Ernest Yanarella, he co-editedPolitical Mythology and Popular Fiction, and has published several articles on political themes in popular literature.

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Sigelman, L. By their (new) words shall ye know them: Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring, andThe Buccaneers . Comput Hum 29, 271–283 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01830396

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