Unveiling Emotional Landscapes in Plautus and Terentius Comedies: A Computational Approach for Qualitative Analysis (2023)

Abstract: This ongoing study explores emotion recognition in Latin texts, specifically focusing on Latin comedies. Leveraging Natural Language Processing and classical philology insights, the project navigates the challenges of Latin’s intricate grammar and nuanced emotional expression. Despite initial challenges with lexicon translation and emotional alignment, the work provides a foundation for a more comprehensive analysis of emotions in Latin literature.

## introduction emotion recognition in text, extensively applied to modern languages, has scarcely targeted classical languages like latin, despite its rich historical and cultural data @xcite @xcite . recognizing emotions in latin texts could illuminate classical literature, historical documents, and the evolution of emotional expression. latin's intricate grammar, extensive vocabulary, and ancient emotional nuances present unique challenges, requiring sophisticated nlp techniques and cultural understanding @xcite . the limited availability of large, annotated latin corpora further complicates traditional machine learning applications @xcite . this paper addresses these hurdles and explores emotion recognition in latin texts. we propose a novel method combining nlp techniques and classical philology, extending emotion recognition techniques to latin language analysis @xcite . ## state-of-the-art remarkable strides have been made in computational linguistics and latin language analysis, including lexicon development @xcite , medieval latin charters annotation @xcite , lemlat enhancements @xcite , and index thomisticus treebank adaptation @xcite . however, emotion recognition in classical languages remains relatively untouched. essential contributions include @xcite 's work on latin sentiment lexicons and sentiment analysis in latin poetry @xcite . studies on other classical languages, like greek, also offer valuable insights @xcite . even with these developments, the complexity of latin's grammar and emotion portrayal makes this a challenging, yet fertile field. a blend of advanced natural language processing (nlp) techniques and a robust understanding of the language's heritage are key to unlocking this potential, promising more profound insights into emotion recognition in classical languages. ## future works this proposal seeks to build upon our initial analysis of character dialogues, with the objective of developing an enhanced lexicon, rooted in the foundational nrc-emolex model. this process includes meticulous data sanitization and augmentation of emotional markers. after refining the model, the next step is to study two plays, comparing manual and automatic emotional annotations, to further improve emotion recognition. the indispensable preliminary discourse analysis provides a foundational understanding, vital to the formulation of a specialized emotion lexicon for latin textual studies. by doing so, the proposal aims to reinforce the efficiency of emotion detection and bolster the reliability and authenticity of the extracted emotional data. the complexity of emotional semiotization necessitates that we do not solely depend on specific emotion-related lemmas, given their inherent instability and context-dependence @xcite . utilizing emotional markers derived from a latin corpus, along with phraseological characteristics, will enrich our lexicon via a thematic, rather than strictly lexical approach. this will enable a more precise comprehension of emotions, allowing for an accurate assessment of the emotion network and a nuanced understanding of emotional representation. the proposed project, thus, marks a significant step towards an exhaustive tool for deep investigation of emotions within latin literature. this innovative endeavour is set to amplify our understanding of the emotional dimensions present within these foundational texts. figure 2: emotional landscape in the heautontimoroumenos (terentius) 95 figure 3: representation of slaves' emotional spectrum figure 4: emotions of seneces in plautus and terentius' drama