My colleague and friend Étienne Brunet, head of a lexicology unit within INaLF (Institut National de la Langue Française) and university professor had decided to pay tribute to Charles Muller (1909-2015), eminent linguist from Strasbourg, founder of lexical statistics and creator of Orthonet. He therefore organized an international colloquium at the University of Nice, from June 5 to 8, 1985. It is therefore in this framework that I presented for the first time in public the broad outlines of the literary facts database project (I insist on the syntagm "literary facts" that I will take up much later as the title of an essay concerning this domain).

Read the colloquium proceedings: Méthodes quantitatives et informatiques dans l'étude …, 1986.

Summary: "Linguistic statistics was born, as we know, long before the introduction of the computer in the field of linguistic and literary studies. However, research related to this discipline has been profoundly renewed when electronic processing has allowed to increase the extent and variety of texts submitted to analysis. But conversely, theoretical and applied research that develops in automatic language processing has benefited in return from knowledge and methods.

My contribution: Henri Béhar, "A literary facts history database project", in International CNRS Colloquium. University of Nice, June 5-8, 1985. In homage to Charles Muller. Quantitative and computer methods in text studies. Computers in Literary & Linguistic Research, Geneva and Paris, Slatkine and Champion, coll. "Travaux de linguistique quantitative", 35, 1986, vol. 1, p. 43-54.

Download the PDF article

Text appearing in: H.B. La Littérature et so golem, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1996, pp. 21-30.

The literary history database, principles, pedagogy, perspectives (pdf) by Béhar, Henri, Michel Bernard and Jean-Pierre Goldenstein

benoitmelancon.quebec Computer science and literary history -- Specific tools

See also: Michel Bernard:
THE LITERARY HISTORY DATABASE
READ:
"The Literary History Database. Principles, pedagogy, perspectives", Texte, 12, 1992, p. 219-258.;
Michel Bernard, "From The Devil on Two Sticks to The Garden of Tortures, the novel in BDHL", in Nathalie Ferrand (ed.), Databases and hypertexts for the study of the novel, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, coll. "Écritures électroniques", 1997, p. 25-44. Ill.;
Michel Bernard, Introduction to computer-assisted literary studies, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, coll. "Écritures électroniques", 1999, p. 94-101.

Read: Claude Marcil, "A CD-ROM that marries game and information", la Presse (Montreal), October 31, 1996, p. B 8. Quantitative and computer methods in text studies, É Brunet