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Short Samples:
Confessiones (Augustinus 354-430 dC) (Last update: May 3th, 2003. The version of T-LAB used was 3.0) |
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T-LAB functions used in this short example are those highlighted in red in the image on the right. For futher information about T-LAB functions click here. To consult more samples click here. To download the demo click here. |
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In his
most original work - the Confessiones - St Augustine,
the greatest representative of so-called patristic philosophy, proposes an original
conception of time.
Suffice it to recall one of his most quoted statements: "dicitur: tempora
sunt tria, praeteritum, praesens et futurum, sed fortasse proprie diceretur:
tempora sunt tria, praesens de praeteritis, praesens de praesentibus, praesens
de futuris" ("they say there are three times: the past, the present
and the future; but perhaps it would be better to say: there are three times:
the present of the past, the present of the present and the present of the future").
In order to examine some aspects of this conception, in a first analysis we
set out to explore the similarity/dissimilarity relationships between the thirteen
books into which the bishop of Hippo's masterpiece is subdivided.
The tool used (Correspondence Analysis) automatically
generated the following map:
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In the map, each point indicates the "position" of one of the 13 books. In
the map each point indicates the "position" of one of the 13
books. The two-dimensional space is organized along two axes (X-horizontal,
Y-vertical) which, just as with topographical maps, represent the "compass
points" (north-south, east-west) and therefore help to orientate
the interpretation. As can be seen, the UNDECimus book (eleventh) turns out to be very different from the others, precisely because its content is characterized by a specific reflection on the nature of time.
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In order to examine the reasons for the "peculiarity" of "liber undecimus", we have used another T-LAB tool: the Specificities analysis. This shows that the book in question, in comparison with all the others, is characterized by "excessive" use of the words (or lemmas) listed in the table on the right. On the basis of this survey, since we are interested in looking more closely at the conception of time, we go on to make further analyses of a corpus specific: the one represented by the eleventh book. A few moments are taken to process a new importation and then we use two T-LAB functions. |
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The Associations function allows us to construct a new map. In this case, the organization of the two-dimensional area does not have any interpretative importance. It is only a graphical trick to facilitate data reading. The word under examination (TEMPUS) is placed in the center and all the others are distributed around it, each at a distance proportional to its degree of association. In other words, the meaningful relationships are only those between the central word and each of the others: for each of the others, the proximity to the center indicates the associational relationship with TEMPUS within the same phrases (the elementary contexts).
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The Concordances option allows a precise verification of the elementary contexts in which the word TEMPUS is used.
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Also, it allows us to export a file with all the elementary contexts, which can be used for further detailed investigation.
