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Using Network Models to
Analyze Old Chinese
Rhyme Data
Johann-Mattis List (CRLAO, Paris)
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Rhymes and Networks
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Rhymes
Lose yourself in the music
the moment you own it
you better never let it go
you only get one shot
do not
miss your chance to blow
this opportunity comes once in a lifetime…
(Eminem, “Lose yourself”, 2002)
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Rhymes
Lose yourself in the music
the moment you own it
you better never let it go
you only get one shot
do not
miss your chance to blow
this opportunity comes once in a lifetime…
(Eminem, “Lose yourself”, 2002)
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Rhymes
Lose yourself in the music [-ɪk] ? [ɔi]
the moment you own it [-ɪt] ? [ai]
you better never let it go
you only get one shot
do not
miss your chance to blow
this opportunity comes once in a lifetime…
(Eminem, “Lose yourself”, 2002)
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Rhymes
music [-ɪk]
own it [-ɪt]
But Germans would rhyme employ and deny!
Mai [-ɔi]
neu [-ai]
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Networks
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Networks
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Networks
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Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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From Rhymes to Networks
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Constructing a Shījīng Network
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Data Preparation
The starting point of the Shījīng network that was constructed
for this talk are the rhyme annotations given in the appendix
of Baxter (1992).
Since the data was not digitally available, I transferred the
annotations by Baxter to a digital version of the Shījīng
(Project Gutenberg) and checked it with additional digital
versions (e.g., http://ctext.org).
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Data Preparation
The digital version was corrected during this process, where
the comparison with other versions and with Baxter’s data
showed that it contained errors.
Furthermore, I had a digital collection of most of the Old
Chinese reconstructions given in the new OCBS system
(provided by L. Sagart).
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Data Organization
Once the data was prepared in such a way, the Shījīng was
organized into:
● poems (numbered as 1, 2, 3, etc.)
● stanzas (numbered 1.1, 1.2, etc.)
● section (part ended by comma or full stop in which
normally the rhyme words occur, numbered for each
stanza, 1, 2, 3, etc.)
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Data Organization
If a section contained a rhyme word according to Baxter’s
annotation, this was noted as such. If I detected further rhyme
words or had reasons to disagree with Baxter’s annotation,
this was noted in an alternative annotation. For each section,
I tried to identify the Old Chinese readings of the OCBS
system. This was not possible in all cases. Some 400
readings are missing, and I still did not have time to check
them.
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Data Inspection and Presentation
The Shījīng dataset was converted to an interactive Web-
Application that can be used to browse rhyming patterns in
the Shijing.
● http://digling.org/shijing/
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Network Reconstruction
The network was reconstructed as follows:
● all characters which occur in the Shījīng in a position that was
annotated as “rhyming” according to Baxter’s annotation, are
represented as nodes
● links between two characters are drawn whenever they are annotated
as being rhyming in a given poem
● the number of instances in which two characters rhyme in separate
stanzas were counted and assigned as the edge weights of the network
● node weights were derived from the number of times the rhyme words
occurred in the Shījīng
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Network Reconstruction
The data was normalized:
● by counting every pair of identical lines only once, in order to avoid that
phrases bear too much weight
The data should be further normalized (but there was no time for the
analysis):
● by controlling the weight of each occurrence of a rhyme along with the
size of the rhyme group, in which it occurs, in order to avoid that one
overcounts links in poems with really large groups of rhyming words per
stanza
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Analyzing the Shījīng Network
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A Bird’s Eye View
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A Bird’s Eye View
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A Bird’s Eye View
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A Bird’s Eye View
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A Bird’s Eye View
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Searching for Structure
Coding Rhymes
by Vowel Quality:
■ a
■ e
■ i
■ o
■ u
■ ə
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Transitions between Rhyme Groups...
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Jaccard index computed
for the number of
transitions between the
OCBS rhyme groups and
inside the same group.
Most of the groups are
strongly recovered,
some, however, occur so
infrequently that they
rhyme more often with
other words than with
words of their own group.
Transitions betweenRhyme Groups...
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
1
3
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
An Infomap community detection analysis was carried out on
the rhyme data. Infomap (Rosvall and Bergstrom 2008) is a
fast community detection algorithm with a very good
performance. It handles weighted nodes and weighted edges,
and uses random walks through the network in order to
determine the best partition into communities.
● Results can be inspected at http://digling.
org/shijing/infomap.html
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
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Searching for Independent Structure: Communities
The communities which were identified are not necessarily
overlapping directly with the OCBS reconstructions of the
rhymes, but show interesting transitions between rhyme
groups as well as splits. Interpreting the data, however, is
difficult, since:
● a community identified by Infomap is not necessarily
homogeneous, since rhyming is not homogeneous
● a split of words with the same rhyme group into two
communities does not imply that they do not rhyme
● we always need to get back to the real data and see what
is going on there
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: The *r-Coda
Jaccard Index for
shared rimes of
characters with Old
Chinese coda *r, *j,
and *n according to
the OCBS.
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
Community 16
(Infomap)
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
Community 16
(Infomap)
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A Closer View at Specific Patterns: *ar, *aj, and *an
Coding Rhymes
by Coda:
■ an
■ ar
■ aj
■ unclear
Community 16
(Infomap)
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Outlook
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Where are we?
Well…
● Rhyme analysis based on network approaches is still
strictly experimental.
● We need to enhance the data (missing readings,
swapped lines in the Shījīng text).
● We need to enhance the models (better
normalization!)
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Where are we?
But…
● Already at this stage, it turns be useful to inspect the
automatically identified clusters in times of doubt
regarding the reading of a certain character.
● It is generally useful to make use of interactive
visualization techniques when dealing with huge
amounts of data (especially when it comes from
different sources).
● Tools like the “Shījīng rhyme browser” are especially
useful for beginners, but probably also for experts (?).
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Where could we be?
Imagine…
● A world in which we have large collections of rhyme
networks on all kinds of poetry, ranging Shakespeare
via Bob Dylan, up to Eminem.
● We could gather important information on rhyming
behaviour — both cross-cultural and culture-specific.
● We could track the emergence of hip hop, or the
degradation of rhyme patterns in modern poetry, or
even the influence of the “Judas!-call” on Bob Dylans
rhyming practice...
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Where could we be?
Imagine (now seriously)…
● that we could carry out large-scale comparisons on
rhyming practice in different stages of Chinese
● that we could propose transparently our individual
assessments of what we think rhymed in pieces of old
Chinese poetry
● that we could trace the history of Chinese in poetry
networks
… doesn’t that sound like it could be interesting?
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Thanks to Laurent Sagart and William Baxter for helpful
discussion, tips, ideas, and data!
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Thanks to Laurent Sagart and William Baxter for helpful
discussion, tips, ideas, and data!
Thanks to Bob Dylan, Eminem, Shakespeare, and all the other
poets out there!
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Thanks to You, for Your Attention!
Thanks to Laurent Sagart and William Baxter for helpful
discussion, tips, ideas, and data!
Thanks to Bob Dylan, Eminem, Shakespeare, and all the other
poets out there!
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Thanks to You, for Your Attention!
ranks
bankes
blanks
francs
tanks
convention
dimension
green gentian
comprehension
suspension
Thanks to Laurent Sagart and William Baxter for helpful
discussion, tips, ideas, and data!
Thanks to Bob Dylan, Eminem, Shakespeare, and all the other
poets out there!