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#24673 - 03/08/04 03:21 PM
Re: Who was John Titor: the linguistic evidence
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Feadhel
Member
Registered: 01/17/04
Posts: 234
Loc: NOVA
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Actually, kitten, I used the other posters in the original P2P postings as a kind of control set, but I didn't grab any of it. I figured people around here were going to be pressed as it was simply trying to keep awake through the ones that interested them.
But as a for instance, in that massive file there were about 190,000 words. Obviously, Titor wasn't even in the majority..
Yet, when looking at the use of "I suppose" I found JT used the phrase 16 times. His nearest competitors, Kevin Spooner, Javier Cortez, Michael Hendrickson, Darby, Rick, Albert Cattoir, and Pamela eached used that phrase twice. Of those folks, only Rick really has a sample quite as large as Titor's, so I thought of Rick as my "control".
Titor also was fond of the phrase "I find," using it 18 times, while only Rick used it as many as 5 times.
Of course I can do more, but to do it I'd really have to separate out all the major players and that means doing it by hand, and at this moment I'm thinking probably.. no!
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#24677 - 03/08/04 03:54 PM
Re: Who was John Titor: the linguistic evidence
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Feadhel
Member
Registered: 01/17/04
Posts: 234
Loc: NOVA
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Alright, now here is where having an English teacher in your midst counts..
Titor was a competent writer for the most part. In fact, he used some real nice subordination and compounding. I quite like this sentence here:
quote:
“Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to approach the Wright Brothers in 1910, before their first flight, and make the suggestion that in a mere thirty years, man would be on the brink of flying through the air at the speed of sound.”
The grammar there is pretty good. I suppose you could quibble with that last comma, but the truth is Titor didn't use commas very well, or very often, so I'll let him have that one to get his average up.
In fact, you might not have noticed, but Titor had a terrible time with run-on sentences. Remember those? It can be a problem for people. The concept is easy to grasp but still, old habits die hard..
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**Run-on compound sentences -in case you don't know, the format should go "..favorable windows will open," **note the comma** "and I will.."
“Later this year, one of two favorable windows will open and I will return to my 2036 (35 yrs.)”; “I have been speaking online for about three months and the page is a collection of the various documents and pictures I have sent to other individuals.”; “I apologize for the links, I understand and it won’t happen again.”; “Please keep in mind the web site is not mine and I apologize for the poor quality of the files.”; “In the last few months, I have had numerous extended conversations online and there are quite a few things I’ve said which can easily be checked out but haven’t.”; “I do not own it and I did not build it.”; “However, the very nature of time travel states that every worldline is unique and you are very much in control of what you do and how you get there.”; “ For all other time travelers out there, I have no tests for you and I would enjoy discussing your feelings and experiences after the war.”; “ My objective was in 1975 and the reason I’m here now is my family.”; “Being exposed to a society through its art, music and advertising is one thing and experiencing it is another.”; “Most of the working theory has been around on a large scale since 1970 and the technical breakthroughs are happening on your worldline right now.”; “Computer printers just didn’t work very well on 12 volts and many people just got used to doing things the old way.”; “My goal is not to believed and I submit that your life would not be any better (and perhaps worse) if you did believe me. You placed “tests” before me that I must pass.”; “The fact is there is nothing I can say or show you or let you drop hydrochloric acid on that will “make” you believe me and I really don’t want that.”
(Note: This is not an exhuastive list of Titor's run-ons. I believe all my other lists to be complete. I may continue to collect these, but ohmygoditssoboring......zzzzzz)
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How do you think Buzz did with this particular problem?
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“You know, one person plays Kirk, another is Spock and everyone fights aliens on the weekend between D&G games.”; “ I had no idea this is serious business for some of you and I apologize for my clumsy marketing attempts.”; “Larry won't talk about it and we stopped asking.”; “Sometimes we're good and sometimes we stink.”; “All of us here read the site now on a regular basis and I know the actors would love to talk about what they're doing and get your feedback.”; “I've even suggested that the site might put a list of people together who have been on this thing since day one so we can get your opinions and shower you with free things.”; “However, I do have a copy of the book and can answer basic questions about the copyright issues.”; “Let's have some fun and let the inquisition begin.”; “So, John owns his words and you own yours.”; “Not that we’re anywhere near his greatness but Orson Wells did the same thing and freaked people out.”; “One day I read the book, did a Google search on John, started reading this site, got some actor pals together and made a show in the barn.”; “If Adam wants a disc, I’ll send one to Pam and the moderators can dust it for prints.”; “To save ya some more time in the basement, I’m using a MAC and my ISP number appears to change every time I log on.”
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I don't know about you, but to me those sentences look awfully similar. Of course, as per kitten, to know for sure this is significant, we'd need to analyze other writers. Perhaps I'll give that a try as well, but not tonight.. 
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#24680 - 03/08/04 04:44 PM
Re: Who was John Titor: the linguistic evidence
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Feadhel
Member
Registered: 01/17/04
Posts: 234
Loc: NOVA
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Now to complete the case that Malderi *isn't* John Titor.
You remember the trouble JT and Buzz had with run-on sentences? Malderi doesn't have 'em.
Well, he *did* commit two run-ons, but they are on the stylish side.. And anyway, in just two short posts of his I collected a number of properly constructed compound sentences. I found Buzz had zero, and Titor (so far) had four.
**Here are Malderi's sentences. You'll notice immediately a difference..
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Malderi: (correct usage) “I've gotten as low as 16kbps, and a friend got 11 once. That's sickening, when a cable modem SHOULD be getting 1.5mbps, or 1500kbps.”; “Doesn't matter whether everyone has they're own T3 line at home, there's one T1 that EVERYTHING GOING OUT AND COMING INTO celebration has to go through, and when even only 20 people are using the cable modems, it lags like nothing else.”; “Oh, and Brian, it can service alot of people at a reasonable speed IF all they're doing is surfing the net. But I play games over the net, and there's a constant stream of packets coming through the modem.”; “Those things carry as near to infinite data as is possible, and that isn't an exaggeration.”; “My name is xxx xxxxx, and I am currently an active senior at Celebration High School.”; “Our debate team is (still) alive, kicking, and (as we term it) bringing home the hardware (trophies).”; “When (if) you decide to build a private high school, and you come across the same problems, simply because you are too busy thinking ABOUT your children, rather than thinking TO your children - then we will see what the outcome of that particular endeavor is.” (run-on) “Oh, well, I'll try again - it's always worst between 8 and 10, when everyone's back from work and people are checking their e-mail and everything.”
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**Malderi *did* use the word "however" once:
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“However, I'd rather not haul my computer to a place and set up a LAN every afternoon when I play games.”
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**and he used the word "again" but with a difference:
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“As for the school system having growing pains - again, what did you expect?”
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So again, I have to say Malderi isn't Titor because he uses the English language properly much more often. (Ok, maybe one does hear an echo now and then, but perhaps there's a reason for that..) He's made good use of his time at school.
I told you he was a good kid.
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#24681 - 03/08/04 05:03 PM
Re: Who was John Titor: the linguistic evidence
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Drak
Member
Registered: 02/12/04
Posts: 96
Loc: WestVirginia
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Wow Feadhel, I didn't realize a persons language had such a fingerprint to it. Great work. I just learnt something new.
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