Abstract
We present ongoing research on the role of motifs in oral transmission of stories. We assume that motifs constitute the primary building blocks of stories. On the basis of a quantitative analysis we show that the level of motif annotation utilized in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther folktale type catalogue is well suited to analyze two genres of folktales in terms of motif sequences. However, for the other five genres in the catalogue the annotation level is not apt, because it is unable to bring to front the commonalities between stories.

This paper will be presented at the LREC workshop Computational Models of Narrative on 16 and 17 May 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Also see the publications section.

Abstract
The Dutch Folktale Database contains fairy tales, traditional legends, urban legends, and jokes written in a large variety and combination of languages including (Middle and 17th century) Dutch, Frisian and a number of Dutch dialects. In this work we compare a number of approaches to automatic language identification for this collection. We show that in comparison to typical language identification tasks, classification performance for highly similar languages with little training data is low. The studied dataset consisting of over 39,000 documents in 16 languages and dialects is available on request for followup research.

The paper will be presented at the LREC workshop Adaptation of Language Resources and Tools for Processing Cultural Heritage on 16 May 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Also see the publications section.