From graphemic dependence to lexical structure: a Markovian perspective on Dante's Commedia

Abstract

This study investigates the structural organisation of Dante's Divina Commedia through a symbolic representation based on vowel-consonant (V/C) encoding. Modelling the resulting sequence through Markov chains provides parsimonious measures of local graphemic dependence, capturing persistence and alternation patterns. Across the poem, these measures reveal canto-level variation, with a clearer longitudinal trend from the Inferno to the Paradiso in the two-state compared to the four-state model. Trigram analysis identifies a restricted set of recurrent configurations acting as graphemic probes, allowing local dependency patterns to be examined in identifiable lexical environments. A complementary classification analysis provides an independent lexical characterisation of the three cantiche and reveals a clearer longitudinal organisation, particularly within the Purgatorio. Lexical anchoring identifies correspondences between selected graphemic probes and discriminative token features. The results provide an interpretable framework for examining correspondences between local graphemic dependence and lexical differentiation.