Phylogenetics of Literary Texts: Reflections on Its Past and Present

Phylogenetic analysis, as an important computational method in evolution research, has been extensively applied to the determination of genealogy of different species. Since the 1980s, phylogenetic analysis has been introduced into the research of language and cultural evolution, and later the research of folkloric literature. In the phylogenetic analysis of folkloric stories, a motif string is identified as the genome of each story. Phylogenetic analysis of the motif strings of homological folkloric stories yields a genealogical tree, which reveals the potential historical connections between the ethnic groups that the folkloric stories belong to. This article, based on an introduction and historical review of phylogenetics of literary texts, discusses several drawbacks and gaps in such research from both national and international perspectives. First, Chinese folklorists have made notable achievements in motif research, but most are limited to motif classification and these motifs have not been fully explored since then. Phylogenetics would introduce a new research path to the analysis of motifs. Second, the identification of homological motifs has become a focus of research during recent years but such identification remains subjective. In phylogenetics, a family of algorithms that are originally designed to evaluate phylogenetic signals can provide a more scientific way to measure the homological distance between different motifs. Last but not least, the application of phylogenetics in literary research is currently restricted to the study of folklore, but in light of the fact that motif analysis also applies to other genres of literary texts, it is reasonable to argue that phylogenetic analysis can also be used to analyze a variety of genres to reveal their internal developments as well as the sociocultural changes reflected therein.