Glossary

This glossary lists the definitions of key terms in phylogenetic stemmatics. Where appropriate, the following field labels are used: Bio. = biology, Clad. = cladistics, Stem. = stemmatics, T.C. = textual criticism

accidental coincidence

T.C. A reading whose similarity with a corresponding reading in another text is not due to common descent. Traditional textual critical term for homoplasy.

antigraph

Stem. A manscript from which another manuscript was copied; an exemplar, an archetype (sensu lato).

antigraphic

Stem. Relating to similarities among manuscripts due to common descent from an antigraph; relatively primitive. (cf. plesiomorphy in biology).

antigraphy

Stem. A reading in a manuscript that is inherited from an antigraph; a relatively primitive reading. (cf. plesiomorphy in biology)

apograph

Stem. A manuscript that was copied from another manuscript; a copy. An apograph of an extant manuscript is called an Abschrift, of which a handful are known in N.T. textual criticism.

apographic

Stem. Relating to differences introduced into an apograph. (cf. apomorphic in biology)

apography

Stem. A reading in an apograph that differs from the corresponding reading in the antigraph; relatively derived. (cf. apomorphic in biology). Shared apographies, or synapographies, are the basis of cladistic analysis.

apomorphic

Bio. Relating to a derived character.

apomorphy

Bio. A derived character. Shared apomorphies, or synapomorphies, are the basis of cladistic analysis.

archetype

Stem. (sensu stricto) The most recent common ancestor of all extant manuscripts in an textual tradition.
Stem. (sensu lato) The most recent common ancestor of a particular set of manuscripts under discussion.

autapomorphy

Bio. A derived character (apomorphy) found only in a terminal taxon. Corresponds to a singular reading in textual criticism.

autograph

Stem. The original manuscript produced by an author and given out for copying.

character

Bio. A trait or other observable characteristic of an organism. A character can be morphological (e.g. based on physical characteristics of the organism) or molecular (based on proteins and nucleotides in the DNA of the organism).

clade

Clad. A branch on a family tree that constitutes a monophyletic group.

cladistics

Clad. A method of grouping taxa based on shared, derived characteristics (or homology). Opposed to phenetics, which groups taxa based on overall similarity. The result of a cladistic analysis is a family tree showing the branching order of each group of taxa, called clades. Because shared, derived characteristics can only be discovered a posteriori with respect to a particular phylogeny, cladistic analysis operates by searching for the family that maximizes the amount of homology in accordance with an optimality criterion. Shared, derived characteristics are called synapomorphies in systematics, shared innovations in historical linguistics, and synapographies in phylogenetic stemmatics. Although traditional stemmatics purports to group manuscripts based on common errors ("a community of error implies a unity of origin"), its notion of error as absolute (a departure from the archetype) instead of relative qualifies it as an imperfect cladistic technique, since reversals are improperly counted as symplesiomorphies.

cladogram

Clad. A diagram showing a phylogeny as a strictly branching tree, usually as a bifurcating tree.

derived

Relating to a characteristic that was changed from one generation to the next. Opposed to primitive.

directed acyclic graph (DAG)

In graph theory, a data structure having edges that are ordered (parent and child) and no path that returns to the same node. If every child node has no more than one parent node, then the DAG is a tree; otherwise, if there is at least one child node with two parent node, the DAG is a network. A stemma is represented as a DAG.

Donaldson paradox

Stem. A problem in traditional stemmatics owing its origin to the notion of absolute error (i.e. with respect to the archetype). If an editor in producing a stemma is to group manuscripts based on a common, absolute errors, the editor must be able to discern errors in the archetype. However, if an editor is able to discern errors in the archetype, then the stemma is unnecessary. The Donaldson paradox is solved by using the concept of relative error (apography), which is determined a posteriori from the stemma that minimizes the amount of apographies.

eclecticism

T.C. A method of textual criticism in which the critical text is established by chosing readings from a plurality of manuscripts at each variation unit.

emendation

Stem. The process of conjecturing a reading that best explains an archetypal error. Also called divination.

error

Stem. A reading of a text that differs from that of the autograph. Grouping based on shared (absolute) errors leads to the Donaldson paradox.

examination

Stem. The process of inspecting the archetype for errors. The third step in traditional stemmatics.

external evidence

T.C. Polarity evidence of readings based on the manuscripts in which they were found and the type of text that they contain.

homology

Clad. Any characteristic shared between two that whose similarity is due to common descent. Opposed to homoplasy. In cladistics, both homology and homoplasy are determined a posteriori with reference to a particular phylogeny that maximizes homology and minimizes homoplasy.

homoplasy

Clad. Any characteristic found in two taxa whose similarity is not due to common descent. Called accidental coincidence in traditional stemmatics. Opposed to homology. In cladistics, both homology and homoplasy are determined a posteriori with reference to a particular phylogeny that maximizes homology and minimizes homoplasy.

internal evidence

T.C. Polarity evidence of readings based on the differences between the readings, not between the manuscripts in which they were found. There are two types of internal evidences: transcriptional and intrinsic.

intrinsic evidence

T.C. Polarity evidence of readings as most likely the one the author would have written (based on style, etc.)

maximum likelihood

Clad. An optimality criterion that chooses the optimal phylogeny as having the most probability given a statistical model of the changes in characteristics. The slowest of all cladistic techniques, maximum likelihood preferred when the number of taxa is small and the changes are well understood (e.g. nucleotide substitution).

maximum parsimony

Clad. An optimality criterion that chooses the optimal phylogeny as having the least number of originations of derived characteristics. Maximum parsimony is best used when a statistical model cannot be formulated for the changes in characteristics, because it is assumes a model that is fairly robust to model violations.

monophyletic

Clad. (sensu stricto) Relating to a group consisting of a single ancestor and all of its descendents. A strictly monophyletic group is a clade and is recognized on the basis of synapomorphy. Called holophyletic by those who adopt the broad sense of monophyletic. Opposed to polyphyletic; cf. paraphyletic. This is the meaning used by the majority of systematic biologists.
Clad. (sensu lato) Relating to a group consisting of a single ancestor and at least some of its descendents. Called monophyletic or paraphyletic by those who use the strict sense of monophyletic. Opposed to polyphyletic. This is the meaning of a minority of systematic biologists, who favor a classification philosophy that permits or even encourages paraphyletic groups.

optimality criterion

Clad. A numerical formula that judges the relative value of different phylogenies. Two optimality criteria are commonly used, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood.

paraphyletic

Clad. Relating to a group consisting of a single ancestor and some, but not all, of its descendents. A paraphyletic group is a grade and is erected on the basis of symplesiomorphy. A more artful way to express this concept is "semiphyletic" because some of the branch of the family tree is missing. In N.T. textual criticism, the Neutral and Western text-types are paraphyletic because the Byzantine text-type is thought, at least by Westcott and Hort, to descend from them.

phenetics

Clad. A method of grouping taxa based on overall similarity. Phenetic techniques are attractive because they are computationally simpler than cladistic techinques. In N.T. textual criticism, the Colwell-Tune quantitative method for establishing text-types is a phenetic method.

phylogeny

Clad. The historical development of a group of related taxa. In stemmatics, a phylogeny is represented as the family tree of a set of manuscripts.

polarity

Clad. The direction of historical change in a characteristic.

polyphyletic

Clad. Relating to a group consisting of at least two ancestors and any of their descendents. A polyphyletic group is mistakenly or improperly erected on the basis of homoplasy.

reasoned eclecticism

T.C. The dominant method of N.T. textual criticism during the 20th century based on a careful balancing of internal and external evidence at every variation unit. Also called rational eclecticism.

reading

T.C. One or more words found at a particular location in a text.

recension

Stem. The process of preparing a family tree or stemma of manuscripts. The first step in traditional stemmatics.

reticulation

A connection on a family tree between two different lineages such that a child node has two parents. Strict trees do not have reticulation, and reticulated trees are technically networks. In biology, reticulation is the result of hybridization or lateral gene transfer. In textual criticism, reticulation is the result of contamination or mixture.

selection

Stem. The process of reconstructing the readings of the archetype and any necessary hyparchetypes. The second step in traditional stemmatics. Selection at the archetypal level involves the application of internal evidence.

singular reading

Stem. A reading found in only one manuscript. (cf. autapomorphy in biology)

stemma

Stem. A diagram presenting the phylogeny of a manuscript tradition in visual form. Unlike a strict cladogram, a stemma may exhibit ancestors and reticulation (mixture between lineages).

stemmatics

T.C. A method of textual criticism based on preparing a family tree of manuscripts (stemma) and evaluating variant readings based on the stemma. Traditional stemmatics has four steps: recension, selection, examination, and emendation. Phylogenetic stemmatics uses cladistics to produce the stemma in the recension step, and the remaining steps are based on traditional principles.

symplesiomorphy

Bio. A shared, primitive character. Groups erected on symplesiomorphies are paraphyletic.

synapomorphy

Bio. A shared, derived character. Groups erected on synapomorphies are monophyletic.

taxon, pl. taxa

Clad. An entity or groups of entity whose phylogeny is being studied. In stemmatics, a taxon includes a manuscript.

text

Stem. A fixed sequence of words or readings embodied in a manuscript, whether extant or hypothetical. Due to the presence of correctors, a manuscript may exhibit multiple texts. A text is sometimes improperly used to refer to a supposed sequence of readings that stands behind a particular group of manuscripts; however, if the group is not genealogically related (i.e. polyphyletic) or if the "text" of a genealogical group is reconstructed on non-genealogical principles (e.g. majority vote), this "text" has no historical reality. If, on the other hand, the group is genealogically related, then the text of the group's archetype may be considered the "text" of the group, but the archetypal text may differ from the majority vote of the group's members.

text-type

T.C. The largest grouping of similar manuscripts that can be identified. Text-types are commonly found using the Colwell-Tune quantitative method that requires at least a 70% agreement within the text-type and a 10% gap with members outside the type. Because this is based on overall similarity, the Colwell-Tune definition is a phenetic definition. Commonly recognized text-types are the Byzantine text-type and the Alexandrian text-type.

thoroughgoing eclecticism

T.C. A method of textual criticism that establishes a critical text based predominantly on the best internal evidence at every variant unit. Also called radical eclecticism.

tree

In graph theory, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) in which the root node has no parent and every other node has exactly one parent.

Type-II variant

T.C. A variant that has at least two readings, each reading being supported by at least two witnesses. (cf. informative character in biology).

variant

T.C. Any reading that differs from a corresponding reading in another text, particularly one that differs from an edition of the Textus Receptus.

variation unit

T.C.. A location in a text that exhibits different or "variant" readings between at least two manuscripts.