Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 18, 2018

vol. 18 2018

New Developments in Tagging Pre-modern Orthodox Slavic Texts

  • Summary/Abstract

    Pre-modern Orthodox Slavic texts pose certain difficulties when it comes to part-of-speech and full morphological tagging. Orthographic and morphological heterogeneity makes it hard to apply resources that rely on normalized data, which is why previous attempts to train part-of-speech (POS) taggers for pre-modern Slavic often apply normalization routines. In the current paper, we further explore the normalization path; at the same time, we use the statistical CRF-tagger MarMoT and a newly developed neural network tagger that cope better with variation than previously applied rule-based or statistical taggers. Furthermore, we conduct transfer experiments to apply Modern Russian resources to pre-modern data. Our experiments show that while transfer experiments could not improve tagging performance significantly, state-of-the-art taggers reach between 90% and more than 95% tagging accuracy and thus approach the tagging accuracy of modern standard languages with rich morphology. Remarkably, these results are achieved without the need for normalization, which makes our research of practical relevance to the Paleoslavistic community.


Electronic Edition and Linguistic Annotation of Slavic Fragments


Терминология в палеославистике и создание сети между существующими цифровыми корпусами

Terminology in Palaeoslavistics and Set up Networking between Existing Digital Corpora


Text or Paratext? The Synopsis Apostolorum of Dorotheus of Tyre

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article discusses the Synopsis Apostolorum attributed to Dorotheus of Tyre, which purports to be a list of the Seventy Apostles. It gives a brief overview of the history of the text in Greek and Slavonic. In contrast to the Greek tradition, where it may be found in miscellanies of various types and also in manuscripts of the Apostolos which are provided with relatively extensive apparatus, in Slavonic it is found exclusively in Apostolos manuscripts. The redaction of the Synopsis, moreover, corresponds to the redaction of the Apostolos; there are discernible differences between the texts in each of the three Slavonic redactions in which it is represented. This indicates that it was translated as part of the accompanying text each time that the Apostolos itself was translated. This means that the Slavonic version (unlike the Greek) exists exclusively as paratext, but that this paratextual status, being dependent on the version, is not intrinsic to the work but a function of its history. This in turn points to the necessity of taking the paratext into account in any study of the text of the Bible.


Translating the Subtleties. The Philosophical Categories in the Symeon Collection (Symeon’s Miscellany

  • Summary/Abstract

    When we study translations from classical or Byzantine Greek into Old Bulgarian, we usually encounter two aspects of the question how: firstly, the how of the linguistic rendering, the how of the translation techniques used for one term or another. The second aspect is that of evaluating the how: shall we praise or, on the contrary, express regrets in respect of the translator’s work. Besides these two inherent aspects of the question how, a third one has arisen in the last three decades in Bulgaria. We have a long tradition of translating Old Greek and Byzantine texts into Old Bulgarian, but with respect to the philosophical and theological terminology used nowadays, are we obliged to follow the patterns of the past, the forms of the language, suggested by this millennium long tradition? With respect to the formation of the Bulgarian philosophical and theological language, the Symeon’s Miscellany is an extremely important source because from f. 222 to f. 237 a range of issues is discussed as answers to questions 29 and 30. This section of the writing includes clarification of terms, categories and concepts from the classical Greek and/or the Christian philosophy and demands profound interdisciplinary research.


Указатели названий и инципитов разделов и глав славянских списков Откровения Иоанна Богослова как поисковый аппарат и основа для изучения редакций текста 

Indexes of Names and Incipita of Sections and Chapters of the Slavonic Witnesses of the Revelation of John the Theologian as a Search Tool and a Basis for Studying Versions of the Text


Иерархическая модель гимнографической терминологии: дигитальное приложение

A Hierarchical Model of the Hymnographic Terminology: Digital Application


Название и самоназвание в номинативных комплексах рукописных книг XIV–XIX веков (на материале Отдела рукописей Российской государственной библиотеки)

Title and Self-title in Nominative Complexes of Manuscripts 14th–19th Centuries (Based on the Material of the Manuscript Department of the Russian State Library)


Проложные жития в средневековой южнославянской книжности

The Prologue Vitae in the Medieval South-Slavonic Literature


Textological Notes on De Christo et Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome in the Greek and Slavonic Manuscript Tradition


Апокрифический цикл об Аврааме в славянских сборниках смешанного содержания и в поэме Георгиоса Хумноса. (К вопросу о рецепции Исторической Палеи)

The Apocryphal Abraham’s Cycle in the Slavic Miscellanies and in the Poem of Georgios Choumnos (A Contribution to the Reception of the Palaea Historica)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The Historical Palaea was composed in Greek (approximately in the 9th century) and found a broad reception in the Slavic world. The text was not only translated more than one time into Slavonic but also reworked in such texts as the apocryphal cycle of Abraham contained in many Southern Slavonic miscellanies. The reception in the Byzantine realm was probably more limited but there is at least one important exception: a poem written in the 2nd half of the 15th century by a Cretan Georgios Chumnos. A comparison between the cycle of Abraham and the relevant part of this poem (verses 579 to 1348) shows that there are many agreements between the cycle of Abraham and Chumnos against the text of the Historical Palaea as their common Vorlage (story of Melchizedek told through direct speech; omission of circumcision of Isaac and death of Sarah; inclusion of death of Abraham omitted in the Palaea; omission of several allusions to the New Testament and many other affinities). The article deals with the question about possible explanations of some of these – partly astonishing – similarities between the texts of two different traditions.


Daily Life and Religion: The Vienna Euchologia Project

  • Summary/Abstract

    The study of the Euchologia (singular: Euchologion), the prayer books to be used by the clergy, has long been neglected by medieval historians. This is beginning to change, as more and more scholars discover the potential of the Euchologia as a source for social history. Indeed, Euchologia contain besides Eucharistic and sacramental liturgies also prayers for various occasions of the daily life of women, men and children from various strata of society and every geographical region of the Byzantine world. Thus, the Euchologia offer a different perspective than most Byzantine written sources, which concentrate on urban, male, often ordained elites. In 2015 a new research project dedicated to the study of Euchologia was initiated at the Division of Byzantine Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The project seeks to study Greek-language Euchologia copied up to the year 1650 and the prayers they contain.


Vis et sapientia: Studia in honorem Anisavae Miltenova. Нови извори, интерпретации и подходи в медиевистиката

Vis et sapientia: Studia in honorem Anisavae Miltenova. New sources, interpretations, and approaches in medieval studies


Елка Мирчева. Староизводните и новоизводните сборници – преводи, редакции, преработки, книжовноезикови особености

Elka Mircheva. Old Redaction Menologia (Structured According to Studion Typikon) and New Redaction Menologia (Structured According to Jerusalem Typikon) – Translations, Redactions, Transformations, Linguistic Peculiarities

  • Summary/Abstract

    Elka Mircheva. Old Redaction Menologia (Structured According to Studion Typikon) and New Redaction Menologia (Structured According to Jerusalem Typikon) – Translations, Redactions, Transformations, Linguistic Peculiarities


Medieval Bulgarian Art and Letters in a Byzantine Context. Edited by Elka Bakalova, Margaret Dimitrova, and M. A. Johnson. Sofia: American Research Center in Sofia, 2017, 573 pp.; ISBN 978-954-92571-0-6

  • Summary/Abstract
    Medieval Bulgarian Art and Letters in a Byzantine Context. Edited by Elka Bakalova, Margaret Dimitrova, and M. A. Johnson. Sofia: American Research Center in Sofia, 2017, 573 pp.; ISBN 978-954-92571-0-6

Иван И. Илиев. Тълкуванието на Книга на пророк Даниил от Иполит Римски в старобългарски превод. София: Институт за литература при БАН, 2017, 425 с. ISBN 978-954-509-580-1

Ivan Iliev. The Commentary on the Book of Daniel by Hippolytus of Rome in the Old Church Slavonic Translation. Sofia: Institute of Literature, BAS, 2017, 425 pp., ISBN 978-954-509-580-1

  • Summary/Abstract

    Ivan Iliev. The Commentary on the Book of Daniel by Hippolytus of Rome in the Old Church Slavonic Translation. Sofia: Institute of Literature, BAS, 2017, 425 pp., ISBN 978-954-509-580-1


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