Ninety Most Frequent Characters and Sixteen Lexical Features of Two Ancient Chinese Vernacular Novels
Description
This dataset provides a normalized frequency of ninety Most Frequent Characters (MFCs) and normalized values of sixteen lexical features of each chapter of two ancient Chinese vernacular novels, Quelling the Demons' Revolt (Ping Yao Zhuan 平妖傳; QDR) and Romance of Late Tang and Five Dynasties (Can Tang Wu Dai Shi Yan Yi Zhuan 殘唐五代史演義傳; RLTFD). QDR is a pioneering "divine and supernatural novel" that serves as an excellent exemplar for studying the initial stage of Chinese vernacular fiction. However, there has been no definitive conclusion about whether Luo Guanzhong is its author, while the fact that Luo Guanzhong is the author of RLTFD is undisputed. By comparing the usage of MFCs and lexical features in these two novels, this dataset can provide a fresh perspective on the authorship question of QDR. The 90 MFCs of the two novels are as follows: "一" "不" "人" "來" "了" "道" "之" "曰" "下" "大" "有" "是" "得" "見" "我" "將" "馬" "上" "去" "個" "出" "在" "日" "此" "你" "兵" "的" "軍" "說" "知" "只" "何" "三" "子" "這" "中" "他" "時" "如" "與" "為" "裡" "二" "看" "前" "州" "事" "十" "那" "也" "到" "回" "卻" "自" "眾" "天" "今" "著" "城" "文" "安" "便" "兩" "主" "吾" "無" "則" "交" "手" "後" "入" "行" "又" "當" "面" "生" "叫" "起" "地" "殺" "把" "聽" "都" "可" "先" "以" "門" "好" "小" "頭" Definitions of the 16 lexical features are provided in the second worksheet of the Excel file named "Lexical features".