MEMS Workshop w/ Julia Puglisi

Date: 

Wednesday, October 18, 2017, 5:15pm

Location: 

Room 201, Semitic Museum, 6 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138

We are pleased to announce that our second speaker for the Methodologies in Egyptology and Mesopotamian Studies (MEMS) workshop is Julia Puglisi, a G1 student in the NELC department with an Egyptology focus. Her presentation is titled “Mechanics of Egyptian Paronomasia: Applying a Pattern Recognition Search to the Ramesside Dream Manual.”

ABSTRACT:
The accurate identification of paronomasia in an Egyptian text demands a set of criteria that qualify an Egyptian word-play construction. No such formula exists to-date. In this talk, I will discuss my ongoing research in the analysis of Egyptian word-play and the application of a machine-learning process (appropriately called a "pattern recognition search") to an ancient Egyptian dream-book (pChester-Beatty III). If successful, the automated identification of ancient Egyptian paronomasia will improve the phonological reconstruction of Egyptian consonants, standardize criteria for paronomastic relationships in a text, reveal typological and diachronic proclivities for specific word-plays, and define correlations between language and religious ideologies.

  • Workshop begins at 5:15pm on Wednesday, October 18th, in room 201 of the Semitic Museum.
  • Refreshments will be provided.

We will have two more speakers this semester, listed below:

  • 11/8 - Kate Rose (Harvard, G5, Anthropology), presentation title TBA
  • 11/29 - Klaus Wagensonner (Yale, NELC department, Assyriology post-doctoral associate), presentation title TBA