Abstract: The present study pertains to stylometry (and, more broadly, to quantitative linguistics). The novel quantitative method of studying the author's style of literary texts, based on the analysis of statistics of numerals found in them, is applied to literary texts in German. A computer program has been developed to search in the text for cardinal and ordinal numerals expressed both in numbers and verbally (in different word forms). The program automatically removes phraseological units and stable combinations from the text that accidentally (without the author's intention) contain numerals. Previously, the text is manually cleared of auxiliary numerals such as pagination, chapter numbers, etc. It is shown that the numerals used by the author in the (artistic) text are individual for each author; their totality is a characteristic feature (author's invariant, "fingerprint") that distinguishes the texts written by different authors. A comparative stylometric analysis of a number of literary works by Thomas Mann, Hermann Broch, Robert Musil, and Elias Canetti – the representatives of German-language literary modernism of the 20th century – is performed. Substantial authorial differences in the manner of using numerals were discovered. The results of the analysis were subjected to hierarchical clustering process (the Manhattan metric; Complete linkage and Between-groups methods). The cluster analysis correctly distributed the texts according to their authorship. The use of various clustering methods for text analysis enhances the significance of the results obtained and confirms their non-random nature. This demonstrates that the novel method of stylometry is able to accurately attribute literary texts to their correct authors.

Abstract: Our study is related to quantitative linguistics and focuses on the application of a new method for analyzing the author's style in literary texts. The method uses computer analysis of numerical data found in texts, including both cardinal and ordinal numerals, expressed both in numbers and verbally. Author used the program which automatically removed phraseological units and fixed combinations accidentally containing numerals. Before analysis, the text must be manually cleaned of numbers that do not contribute to the author's artistic vision, such as page numbers or chapter numbers. The analysis revealed that the use of numerals by an author in his/her texts is unique and individual, forming a characteristic feature that distinguishes texts by different authors. For the first time, a formal quantitative stylometric analysis is performed of the literary works by Victor Pelevin and Vladimir Sorokin – authors whose literary styles share many similarities when viewed through the lens of a traditional descriptive philological approach. To validate this methodology, we have also included the texts of four "impostor" authors in our analysis. It has been found that Pelevin's and Sorokin's texts differ significantly in their use of numerals. The data on occurrences of numerals in the texts were subjected to hierarchical clustering, which accurately divided the texts into groups based on their authorship. Since the clusterization results can be influenced by the choice of both metrics and clustering method, we tried various reasonable combinations of them to ensure the reliability of our results. Each time, the dendrogram would change only slightly. Thus, the clustering outcomes were found to be reliable. The proposed new method of quantitative linguistics, which is based on the analysis of numerals in literary texts, has the potential to successfully solve the stylometric problems, particularly related to the attribution of texts.