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