austraL asia 1160
Memoirs of the Oratory: a surprising finding
ROME: 10th June 2005 -- In a preliminary study
utilising conceptual analysis software,
and without any prompting by human intervention in the first 'pass'
across the entire text of the da Silva Ferreira
Italian critical edition, a surprise emerged: the concepts
clustering around the central concept, 'oratorio', were: 'casa',
'chiesa', 'scuola', 'ricreazione', 'giovanetti' (and similar terms),
'compagni'. Not very far distant was 'vita'.
Effectively, then, the program identified what is
now so well known to Salesians as Constitution 40, which mentions, in
the same breath, 'oratory', 'youngsters, 'home', 'parish', 'school',
'playground' and 'life'. At this point of the analysis, which was
a first pass to hunt for important concepts in the context of the
original text, this is a surprise. In hindsight,
Salesians might say that it is no surprise at all, but computer
programs do not have hindsight! What the result was telling us,
at this early stage, was that it had found evidence that Don Bosco's
writing in this text points to the 'pastoral experience in his first
Oratory which serves as a model..'. It is the model, not just the
relating of experience, that emerges so surprisingly clearly.
The exploration was not based on word counts, frequency of
terms which are indicators, but only surface ones. The program,
known as Leximancer, was developed several years ago at the University
of Queensland (Aus), using cutting-edge concept mining technology, and is now
recognised globally as the best program of its kind for content and
concept relational analysis. It is employed not only in academic
linguistic circles, but is used in forensic
analysis for fraud detection, media analysis, mapping and
navigating entire web sites.
With a little prompting, which means 'seeding' the
original concepts with language that Don Bosco would not have used (he
did not employ complex terms like 'educative-pastoral community' for
example), Leximancer really goes to work. It helps us identify
features that are not so obvious on first reading of MO.
Leximancer offers hypotheses for further checking - it suggests, for
example, that we explore the link between Church and home as part of
Don Bosco's thinking frame; and sure enough if one takes a look at a
number of excerpts, this relationship emerges more strongly as a
characteristic of Don Bosco's experience - look at the brief section on
the Società d'Allegria as an example. It also suggests
that Mamma Margaret's 'ipsissima verba' were important in Don Bosco's
text, or his memory of those words were.
This was 'first pass' only, and exploring the
hypotheses takes time. MO is arguably one of the most important
original Salesian texts we have, and one of the most enjoyable to
read. The good news is that serious study of the text via
appropriate technology does not end up as dry dissection
but as exciting revelation.
VOCABULARY
conceptual analysis: involves identifying
explicit concepts on textual evidence, but also implicit ones - again
on evidence. Also called concept mining.
Antonio da Silva Ferreira: Brazilian
Salesian Scholar whose critical work on early Salesian texts is widely
acclaimed.
hindsight: perceiving things after the
event
cutting-edge: in the forefront of an
activity.. One description of Don Bosco, in Italian, is 'in
avanguardia' - he was, then, cutting-edge.
forensic analysis: to produce results for
law courts
dissection: cutting into sections
