How Forensic Linguistics Helped Unmask Rowling
August 23, 2013
By now most have heard that J.K. Rowling, famous for her astoundingly successful Harry Potter books, has been revealed as the author of the well-received crime novel “The Cuckoo’s Calling.” Time spoke to one of the analysts who discovered that author Robert Galbraith was actually Rowling, and shares what they learned in, “J.K. Rowling’s Secret: a Forensic Linguist Explains how He Figured it Out.”
It started with a tip. Richard Brooks, editor of the British “Sunday Times,” received a mysterious tweet claiming that “Robert Galbraith” was a pen name for Rowling. Before taking the claim to the book’s publisher, Brooks called on Patrick Juola of Duquesne University to linguistically compare “The Cuckoo’s Calling” with the Potter books. Joula has had years of experience with forensic linguistics, specifically authorship attribution. Journalist Lily Rothman writes:
“The science is more frequently applied in legal cases, such as with wills of questionable origin, but it works with literature too. (Another school of forensic linguistics puts an emphasis on impressions and style, but Juola says he’s always worried that people using that approach will just find whatever they’re looking for.)
“But couldn’t an author trying to disguise herself just use different words? It’s not so easy, Juola explains. Word length, for example, is something the author might think to change — sure, some people are more prone to ‘utilize sesquipedalian lexical items,’ he jokes, but that can change with their audiences. What the author won’t think to change are the short words, the articles and prepositions. Juola asked me where a fork goes relative to a plate; I answered ‘on the left’ and wouldn’t ever think to change that, but another person might say ‘to the left’ or ‘on the left side.'”
One tool Juola uses is the free Java Graphical Authorship Attribution Program. After taking out rare words, names, and plot points, the software calculates the hundred most-used words from an author under consideration. Though a correlation does not conclusively prove that two authors are the same person, it can certainly help make the case. “Sunday Times” reporters took their findings to Galbraith’s/ Rowling’s publisher, who confirmed the connection. Though Rowling has said that using the pen name was liberating, she (and her favorite charities) may be happy with the over 500,000 percent increase in “Cukoo’s Calling” sales since her identity was uncovered.
The article notes that, though folks have been statistically analyzing text since the 1800s, our turn to e-books may make for a sharp increase in such revelations. Before that development, the process was slow even with computers, since textual analysis had to be preceded by the manual entry of texts via keyboard. Now, though, importing an entire tome is a snap. Rowling may be just be the last famous author to enjoy the anonymity of a pen name, even for just a few months.
Cynthia Murrell, August 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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