Conference tecrus::mormonism

104.0. "Wordprints & the Book of Mormon" by CACHE::LEIGH () Wed Mar 23 1988 08:03

A. Q. Morton (1) proposed a method of determining who is *not* the author of
documents.  He proposed that a series of 64 often used word-patterns be
used to identify the writing habits of an author.  These word-patterns
involve "filler" words such as "and", "the", "of", "that", etc.  Apparently
authors use these word-patterns in a way that is reasonably consistent across
time and is independent of the author's style of writing as viewed from
vocabulary and subject matter.  Each person has his or her own style or
pattern of using the filler words.  Even persons who translate the works of
other persons do not affect the word-patterns of the original authors.

The study of these word-patterns is referred to as "stylometry" (2) or
"wordprinting" (3).  Wordprinting is based on the observation that each author
seems to show a consistent tendency to use some of Morton's word-patterns
at a significantly different rate than do other authors.  The rate at which
each of the 64 patterns is used can be tabulated and analyzed statistically
to give a wordprint that is unique with each author.  This is significant
because wordprinting is thus a measurement technique that is not biased by
the opinions of the investigators.

A group of researchers in California (both LDS and non-LDS) have developed
a theoretical model that measures the wordprint of a specified text.  This
model is consistent with theoretical principles of statistics and information
theory.  They have developed a computer program that uses this model to
analyze the writings of a wide variety of authors.  Their results show that
wordprinting as performed by their model is a viable method of identifying
who is *not* the author of a particular work.  That is, the wordprint of the
work is statistically different from the wordprints of suspected authors,
indicating that those persons could not have written that work.

In this note, I will present information to explain their use of their model
to analyze the writings of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Solomon Spalding,
Nephi, and Alma.  I will also explain the theoretical principles behind their
model and their use of the model to compare 26 independent texts from seven
different authors.  The results of these tests show that their model and
computer program do give statistically accurate and acceptable results.

The information that I will present is taken from two papers, one written by 
John L. Hilton and the other by Hilton and Kenneth D. Jenkins.  These men are
part of the California group.

--------------------

  (1) A. Q. Morton, "Literary Detection, How to Prove Authorship and Fraud
      in Literature and Documents", C. Scribner's Sons N.Y. (1978).  Also,
      personal communication (March 1985) between Morton and Hilton.

  (2) Morton, op. cit.

  (3) W. A. Larsen, A. C. Rencher, & T. Layton, "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?
      An analysis of Wordprints", Brigham Young University Studies, BYU Press,
      Provo, Utah, Vol. 20, #3 (Spring 1980), pp. 225-251.

      The model being described in this note is not the work performed by
      Larsen, Rencher, and Layton.   John. L. Hilton told me on the telephone
      that the work reported in BYU Studies did not have a completely sound
      theoretical basis; he thinks the model developed by his group has overcome
      the deficiencies in that work.

    I was glad to see this entry Allen.  I recently attended a KNOW 
    YOUR RELIGION  lecture to hear Blaine Yorgeson talk on New Proofs 
    to the Book of Mormon.  He talked of Word Printing among other
    things.  I found it quite fascinating.
    
    I hope it is permissible to present information received this way
    in this conference.  It is not a reference that can be referred
    to by others so I will not present it as documentation of any point
    but offer it as my subjective interpretation of his report.  Allen,
    if you or anyone else come across articles that refer to any of these 
    ideas I hope they will be shared with us here.  You have already
    given more detail than Blaine was able to present in his lecture.
    
    He presented  a graph (axis were not defined) that showed the relative
    similarity of each of the Book of Mormon writers, Joseph Smith, and
    Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon authors were closely grouped showing
    a progressive change from first to last.  The Prophet Joseph Smith's
    print was greatly separated with the word print of Christ near the center.
    It was fascinating to see that the word print for Christ in the
    Book of Mormon and Christ's words in the New Testament had nearly
    identical word prints.  I would like to see more work done in this 
    area and some of the prints charted.
    
    He told of how in Joseph's wive's diary she noted how he complained
    of how difficult it was to follow the words on the plates as they kept
    going from right to left.  Hebrew is written right to left.  

    He told of how we all use idioms to express our language.  It is
    difficult to write without using idioms of the times.  Scholars
    have found 160 different Hebrew idioms in the Book of Mormon.  The
    number of English: zero.  
    
    The reformed Egyptian used by the Book of Mormon Prophets was more
    succinct than the Hebrew language and allowed them to put more ideas
    into a smaller space.  It did have its limitations.  It did not
    have notation for paragraphs or any capitalization.   This accounts
    for most of the changes from the original manuscript often sited.
    
    He spent a great deal of time cautioning about obtaining an
    "Intellectual testimony" which is a foundation of sand and will
    not stand like the truth conveyed by the Spirit.  This is a real
    danger in our time.  Hugh Nibley was quoted as saying "There is so 
    much proof for  the Book of Mormon now that we are not going to get 
    credit for accepting  it on faith any more" he said. 
    
    This was interesting to me and I would like to do some reading on
    these subjects.  Brigham Young was reported to have said that 
    one of his greatest fears is that Mormons would believe his every
    word and not go home and pray before they believed  them.
    I would have to read, study it out in my mind and pray about this as I
    have the Book of Mormon.  I now have no doubt as I have received 
    the promised witness that is more valid than any obtained
    through my mortal senses.  
     
    In Christ's Love
    
    Gary