University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
5-2011
Comparing Texts of the Okmulgee Constitution: Fourteen Instrument Versions and Levenshtein’s Edit Distance Metric
Charles D. Bernholz University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience
Part of the Library and Information Science Commons
Bernholz, Charles D., "Comparing Texts of the Okmulgee Constitution: Fourteen Instrument Versions and Levenshtein’s Edit Distance Metric" (2011). Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries. 231. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/231
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
Comparing Texts of the Okmulgee Constitution: Fourteen Instrument Versions and Levenshtein’s Edit Distance Metric
+++
Charles D. Bernholz Love Memorial Library University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE 68588
Phone: 402-472-4473 Fax: 402-472-5181 E-mail: [email protected]
6/14/2011 12:46 PM
+++
1
Abstract
In 1870, the Five Civilized and other tribes within the Indian Territory initiated a series of council meetings to deal with seven federal stipulations presented at Fort Smith in 1865 and with new treaties established in 1866. One development was the so-called December 1870 Okmulgee
Constitution, fashioned in the Creek capital, that provided a model for a new full-fledged Indian state to replace the Territory. Various versions of the text of that document (and of a revised rendition) were published, as part of the official and unofficial record of the sequence of proceedings. This study examined fourteen variants of that Okmulgee Constitution, in terms of the documents‘ provenance and of their variability as quantified through the application of
Levenshtein‘s edit distance algorithm.
2
Comparing Texts of the Okmulgee Constitution: Fourteen Instrument Versions and Levenshtein’s Edit Distance Metric
+++
―Knowledge is affected at the stage of reproduction by the errors that seem to inevitably creep in whenever a text is reproduced. From the hand copyists of the ancient world to the latest computer composition techniques of today, the reproduction of texts has always involved the introduction of error‖ (Neavill, 1975, p. 29)
+++
Preamble
In an unforgettable motion picture from 1942, two of Hollywood‘s most famous characters uttered the same phrase. In that unique sentence, their song and time together in Paris were recalled in an intense stream of sadness and of desire that made the cinematic expression so visibly painful. Such moments encapsulate the very essence with which the film industry has provided instances of love reigning supreme, regardless of any surrounding chaos.
―Play it again, Sam,‖ Ingrid Bergman cooed.
―Play it again, Sam,‖ Humphrey Bogart demanded.
Who could possibly forget such a significant quotation from the Big Screen?
It seems that we all have, since the script of Casablanca provided for an entirely different, and a more complex, rendering of those two scenes. Bergman, as Ilsa Lund, softly spoke ―Play it once, Sam, for old time‘s sake,‖ followed by the request ―Play it, Sam. Play ‗As
Time Goes By.‘‖ Bogart – in the role of Richard ―Rick‖ Blaine, owner of Rick‘s Café
Américain – later angrily rebuked the same piano player: ―You played it for her and you can play it for me…. If she can stand it, I can. Play it!‖ (Koch, 1973, pp. 87 and 95).
Fred R. Shapi