scholarly journals Emergence of Writing Systems through Multi-Agent Cooperation (Student Abstract)

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 13941-13942
Author(s):  
Shresth Verma ◽  
Joydip Dhar
Keyword(s):  
Recent Literature ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Language System ◽  
Two Agents ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Emergent Language

Learning to communicate is considered an essential task to develop a general AI. While recent literature in language evolution has studied emergent language through discrete or continuous message symbols, there has been little work in the emergence of writing systems in artificial agents. In this paper, we present a referential game setup with two agents, where the mode of communication is a written language system that emerges during the play. We show that the agents can learn to coordinate successfully using this mode of communication. Further, we study how the game rules affect the writing system taxonomy by proposing a consistency metric.

scholarly journals Writing systems as modular objects: proposals for theory design in grapholinguistics

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Neef
Keyword(s):  
Solution Space ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Language System ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pertinent Question ◽  
Typical Component ◽  
Notational System

AbstractThis paper gives an outline of the Modular Theory of Writing Systems by answering the question: what are the elements or modules that are necessary for a writing system to work? A writing system is a notational system for a natural language. Based on this characterization, it is obvious that a necessary component of a writing system is a specific language system. What eventually constitutes a writing system in addition to this language system is a device that, put simply, relates units of a language system to units of a script. This component is termed ‘graphematics’ in the present framework and is regarded as a necessary module of a writing system. Above that, another typical component of writing systems, namely ‘systematic orthography’, applies to the ‘graphematic solution space’ and restricts the spelling possibilities of specific words in accordance to their belonging to a specific level of the vocabulary of the language. Supplemented by reflections on the status of scripts as well as of IPA as a writing system, an answer is finally given to the pertinent question how spoken language and written language are related to each other. The answer is that this relation is of a considerably indirect nature.

The relation of vowel letters to phonological syllables in English and German

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-234
Author(s):  
Martin Neef
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Language System ◽  
English I

Assuming that a writing system is inevitably dependent on a language system, the main function of written representations is to give access to the basic representations of the language system. In this paper, I want to deal with graphematic phenomena, i.e. the relations of written representations to corresponding phonological representations. In particular, I will delve into the relation of written representations to the phonological factor of the number of syllables, based on data from English and German. Though in these languages, there is neither a specific written element relating to the syllable number nor an isomorphic relation between vowel letters and the number of syllables, two questions are worth examining: Can a word have more syllables than vowel letters? Can a word have less syllables than uninterrupted sequences of vowel letters? The first question will be answered positively for both languages although there are some severe differences to be stated; the second question will be answered positively only for English. I will show that these results are side-effects of more basic regularities of the writing systems under consideration.

How do writing systems shape reading and reading acquisition?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Rastle
Keyword(s):  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Reading Acquisition ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Skilled Reading ◽  
Statistical Regularities ◽  
Reading System ◽  
The Relationship

Writing is a relatively recent cultural invention, and reading is a skill that requires years of instruction, dedication, and practice. My talk will consider how the nature of a writing system influences reading acquisition and skilled reading. I consider the nature of statistical regularities that characterize English orthography and show across several experiments that knowledge encoded in the skilled reading system mirrors these regularities. This analysis reveals that weaknesses in the relationship between spelling and sound give rise to powerful regularities between spelling and meaning that are critical for text comprehension. I conclude by thinking about how written language differs from spoken language and argue that these differences may be at the heart of human capacity for rapid, skilled reading.

scholarly journals EPS mid-career prize lecture 2017: Writing systems, reading, and language

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Rastle
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Rapid Analysis ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Meaningful Information ◽  
Skilled Reading ◽  
Reading System ◽  
The Relationship

Skilled reading reflects an accumulation of experience with written language. Written language is typically viewed as an expression of spoken language, and this perspective has motivated approaches to understanding reading and reading acquisition. However, in this article, I develop the proposal that written language has diverged from spoken language in important ways that maximise the transmission of meaningful information, and that this divergence has been central to the development of rapid, skilled reading. I use English as an example to show that weaknesses in the relationship between spelling and sound can give rise to strong regularities between spelling and meaning that are critical for the rapid analysis of printed words. I conclude by arguing that the nature of the reading system is a reflection of the writing system and that a deep understanding of reading can be obtained only through a deep understanding of written language.

scholarly journals The Emergence of Written Language: From Numeracy to Literacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-36
Author(s):  
Hye K. Pae
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Sign System ◽  
Greek Alphabet ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing

Abstract This chapter reviews how written signs first emerged and developed into systematic writing systems. The first sign system appeared to fulfill accounting purposes for the preservation of private properties in antiquity. Initial written signs, including plain tallies, complex tokens, and tokens in clay envelopes, are reviewed. Written signs before the emergence of the Greek alphabet, such as cuneiforms and hieroglyphs, are also reviewed. As agricultural culture and urbanization took place, writing systems became more multifaceted and systematized. The characteristics of true alphabets are discussed. For a comparison purpose, the Chinese writing system is briefly mentioned. The chapter ends with a discussion of the transition from numeracy to literacy.

An Error Analysis of Hiragana and Katakana Writing Systems in the Learning of Japanese as Third Language at UiTM

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Norhazlina Husin ◽  
Nuranisah Tan Abdullah ◽  
Aini Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
The Other ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Main Challenge

Abstract The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students has its own issues and challenges. It does not merely involve only teaching the four language skills. Japanese language has its own unique values. These unique values also tend to differentiate the teaching of Japanese language as a third language from other third language acquisitions. The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students also involves the teaching of its writing system. This makes the teaching of Japanese language rather complicated because Japanese language has three forms of writings, namely: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Students are required to fully understand the Hiragana system of writing first before proceeding to learn the other two forms of writings. The main challenge in the teaching of Japanese writing systems is the time allocated that can be considered as very limited as other language aspects need to be taught too. This, which relates directly to students’ factor very much contribute to the challenges foreseen. Students are likely to face problems in understanding and using the writings as they simultaneously need to adhere to the findings teaching and learning schedules. This article discusses on the analysis conducted in terms of the learning of the Hiragana and Katagana systems of writing among foreign students. The discussion in this article is based on the teaching of Japanese language to students of Universiti Teknologi MARA(UiTM), Shah Alam. Keywords: Third language, Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji

Automated argument adjudication to solve ethical problems in multi-agent environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-335
Author(s):  
Selmer Bringsjord ◽  
Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu ◽  
Michael Giancola
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Propositional Content ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
Artificial Agent ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Multi Agent

Abstract Suppose an artificial agent a adj {a}_{\text{adj}} , as time unfolds, (i) receives from multiple artificial agents (which may, in turn, themselves have received from yet other such agents…) propositional content, and (ii) must solve an ethical problem on the basis of what it has received. How should a adj {a}_{\text{adj}} adjudicate what it has received in order to produce such a solution? We consider an environment infused with logicist artificial agents a 1 , a 2 , … , a n {a}_{1},{a}_{2},\ldots ,{a}_{n} that sense and report their findings to “adjudicator” agents who must solve ethical problems. (Many if not most of these agents may be robots.) In such an environment, inconsistency is a virtual guarantee: a adj {a}_{\text{adj}} may, for instance, receive a report from a 1 {a}_{1} that proposition ϕ \phi holds, then from a 2 {a}_{2} that ¬ ϕ \neg \phi holds, and then from a 3 {a}_{3} that neither ϕ \phi nor ¬ ϕ \neg \phi should be believed, but rather ψ \psi instead, at some level of likelihood. We further assume that agents receiving such incompatible reports will nonetheless sometimes simply need, before long, to make decisions on the basis of these reports, in order to try to solve ethical problems. We provide a solution to such a quandary: AI capable of adjudicating competing reports from subsidiary agents through time, and delivering to humans a rational, ethically correct (relative to underlying ethical principles) recommendation based upon such adjudication. To illuminate our solution, we anchor it to a particular scenario.

In search of the perfect orthography

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Venezky
Keyword(s):  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
International Phonetic Alphabet ◽  
Experienced Reader ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Advanced Stages ◽  
One To One ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychological Processing ◽  
The Ideal

Philologists, linguists, and educators have insisted for several centuries that the ideal orthography has a one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and phoneme. Others, however, have suggested deviations for such functions as distinguishing homophones, displaying popular alternative spellings, and retaining morpheme identity. If, indeed, the one-to-one ideal were accepted, the International Phonetic Alphabet should become the orthographic standard for all enlightened nations, yet the failure of even a single country to adopt it for practical writing suggests that other factors besides phonology are considered important for a writing system. Whatever the ideal orthography might be, the practical writing systems adopted upon this earth reflect linguistic, psychological, and cultural considerations. Knowingly or unknowingly, countries have adopted orthographies that favour either the early stages of learning to read or the advanced stages, that is, the experienced reader. The more a system tends towards a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, the more it assists the new reader and the non-speaker of the language while the more it marks etymology and morphology, the more it favours the experienced reader. The study of psychological processing in reading demonstrates that human capacities for processing print are so powerful that complex patterns and irregularities pose only a small challenge. Orthographic regularity is extracted from lexical input and used to recognise words during reading. To understand how such a system develops, researchers should draw on the general mechanisms of perceptual learning.

It all hinges on the vowels

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-89
Author(s):  
Heidi Swank
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Actual Usage ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Relative Independence ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Ethnographic Examination ◽  
At Will

I argue that formal and ethnographic studies of written language could benefit from greater reciprocal engagement. Recent work on formal aspects of written language has made plain that orthographic typology can help us to understand readers’ phonological awareness as well as inform and shape pedagogical strategies. However, much work on orthographic typologies has not examined actual use of writing systems. Peter Daniels stated that writing can be “adapted … at will” (1996a:2). This notion of adaptability of writing poses problems for studies of writing systems that do not look at its actual usage. Through a cross-orthographic study of writing adaptability, I suggest that an ethnographic examination of writing systems challenges the definition of the term alphasyllabary proposed in Bright (1999). I offer that a focus on the relative independence of vowels and consonants provides a solid typological classification system that accounts for changes and current variability in writing system usage.

scholarly journals Revitalising Naxi dongba as a ‘pictographic’ vernacular script

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Duncan Poupard
Keyword(s):  
Future Development ◽  
Yunnan Province ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Standard Chinese

A script can be a window into a language and all the culture contained within it. China’s minority peoples have a multitude of scripts, but many are in danger of falling out of use, a decline spurred by the adoption and promotion of standard Chinese across the country. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to preserve minority writing systems. This article reveals how the primarily logographic Naxi dongba script (often labelled the world’s ‘last living pictographs’), used in China’s southwestern Yunnan province to record the Naxi language, can be practically used as a modern writing system alongside its more widely known traditional role as a means of recording religious rites, and what exactly separates these two styles of writing. The efforts that have been made to achieve the goal of modernisation over the past decades are reviewed, including the longstanding attempts at Unicode encoding. I make some suggestions for the future development of the script, and employ plenty of examples from recent publications, alongside phonetic renderings and English translations. It is hoped that overall awareness of this unique script can be raised, and that it can develop into a vernacular script with everyday applications.

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