Identifying Authors by Phonoprints in Their Characters’ Names: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

If authors put words together in ways that can be recognized as wordprints (; ; ), do they put sounds together in identifiable ways when they invent names? Could they have unique sound prints (phonoprints) as well? This exploratory study compared phonemic patterns of fictional names in the poorly written Manuscript Story by Spalding and the extremely well-written Lord of the Rings and related works by J. R. R. Tolkein with names from an authentic public record, the nineteenth-century US Census. Phonotactic probabilities were determined using a calculator (Vitevitch and Luce, 2004) available on the Internet. When multivariate patterns of mean phonotactic probabilities at each ordinal phoneme position were considered, phonoprints emerged that merit further examination.

Keywords:

• author identification
• phonoprints
• fictional character names
• authentic names
• nineteenth-century census
• J. R. R. Tolkein
• phonotactic probabilities

Notes

1 Both ANOVA and MANOVA assume a population that is normally distributed (Gaussian). However, like the t test from which it is derived, ANOVA is robust with respect to violation of this assumption (Box, 1953), particularly when sample size is large, as it was here. Note in the discussion of Hypothesis 4 in the next section, however, that Gaussian shape of phoneme probabilities might be useful as a differentiator between natural naming systems and fictional ones.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brad Wilcox

Brad Wilcox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Brigham Young University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy and children’s literature. His research interests include reading, writing, education in international settings, and onomastics.

Correspondence to: Brad Wilcox, 201-P MCKB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. Email: [email protected]

Bruce L Brown

Bruce L. Brown is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Brigham Young University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. His research interests include psychology, statistics, and the study of names.

Wendy Baker Smemoe

Wendy Baker-Smemoe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University. Her research interests include second language acquisition, dialectology, and onomastics.

Sharon Black

Sharon Black is an Associate Teaching Professor and editor/writing consultant in the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University. Her research interests include early literacy instruction, gifted/talented education, and elementary arts integration.

Justin Bray

Justin Bray graduated from Brigham Young University in 2011 with a BA in history and a minor in Latin American studies. He currently works at the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.