Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Notational Standards
discussion à
The next generation knowledge tools
Short communications
From some one who wishes to be anonymous
It may be orthogonal here; but useful to reflect on
something:
The classical Chinese discussions of these issues date back
as far as the written record in China; or about 5,000 years.
The explosion in formal schools of philosophy (Lao Tsu is
just one of many; and one of the few to be read in the West) at about
500BC also paralleled a more mundane effort to codify the Chinese
language; both in terms of Character script usage and formal definitions.
The first taxonomies were published 2500 years
ago, and were finally codified in 100AD in the Tsu Hai, or Sea of
Words. Rather than a declarative statement of specific definitions; like
Webster; it represents a historical guide to earlier usage; much like the
English language OED.
The Chinese language differs considerably from European
languages in that it is a loose conceptual framework rather than a
recording device for phonetic and inflected human speech. So, Chinese
scholarship on this issue has a different focus than European works. And, in
many ways, Chinese sources do not share the same linguistic Vs semantic
divide.
For a quick and entertaining read; I recommend a very
knowledgeable and well written summary on the Chinese language: "Why
Chinese Is So Damn Hard" posted in
http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html.