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<DIV><FONT size=2>Dear LinguistList colleagues, I wonder if many of
linguists used the frequency of prepositions in the text of different
authors as the basis for determining authorship. Our small group of
computational linguists used some simple statistical criterion, i.e. Chi-square,
to juxtapose the use of some fuctional words in the text of Bakhtin (it is
more correctly to write his name BAHTIN, to my mind!) and the controvercial
work of Voloshinov "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA JAZYKA"(Marxism and the philosophy of
language) which was often ascribed to M. M. Bahtin. Could you give me some
references to the books and articles which proved or at least stated that the
text in question, that is, "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA JAZYKA"(Marxism and the
philosophy of language) was really written by M.M. Bahtin, but was
published under the name of Voloshinov. I know that Wikipedia stated it, but no
other articles published under the exact names of linguists. It was
surprising to find out that some texts of I.V. Stalin were close enough to those
of "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA JAZYKA"(Marxism and the philosophy of language). Was
it because Stalin wrote about Marxism? Was it fashinable to imitate Stalin's
style? Actually, I agree to some American linguists who think that d<FONT
size=2>uring the time, late 1920s and early 1930s, V.I. Lenin's influence was
waning and Stalin's was rising. As Stalin became a dominant figure,
those who wrote derivative material emulated his phrasing and style--a kind of
prestige and survival device, one that was likely to be approved of and and that
satisfied critics. In that kind of political environment, any public
discussion involving Marxism would have to reflect the ascendant and dominant
theoretical perspective, and style is a significant component of that. It
remains to be demonstrated that this kind of unconscious but determined
imitation is sufficient to produce a statistical closeness of the kind we are
discussing. So, it is still an enigma who wrote "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA
JAZYKA"(Marxism and the philosophy of language), or is it not? Do you know any
references to the authorship of "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA JAZYKA"(Marxism and the
philosophy of language)? Looking forward to hearing from you soon to <A
href="">yutamb@mail.ru</A> about this mystery "MARKSIZM I FILOSOFIJA
JAZYKA"(Marxism and the philosophy of language). Remain Yours sincerely Yuri
Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk, Russia</FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>