Symbols: An Evolutionary History from the Stone Age to the Future
暫譯: 符號：從石器時代到未來的演變歷史
Sproat, Richard
- 出版商: Springer
- 出版日期: 2024-08-02
- 售價: $1,660
- 貴賓價: 9.5 折 $1,577
- 語言: 英文
- 頁數: 235
- 裝訂: Quality Paper - also called trade paper
- ISBN: 3031268113
- ISBN-13: 9783031268113
海外代購書籍(需單獨結帳)
相關主題
商品描述
This book presents the first systematic study of graphical symbol systems, including a history of graphical symbols from the Paleolithic onwards, a taxonomy of non-linguistic systems - systems that are not tied to spoken language - and a survey of more than 25 such systems. One important feature of many non-linguistic systems is that, as in written language, symbols may be combined into complex "messages" if the information the system represents is itself complex. To illustrate, the author presents an in-depth comparison of two systems that had very similar functions, but very different structure: European heraldry and Japanese kamon.
Writing first appeared in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago and is believed to have evolved from a previous non-linguistic accounting system. The exact mechanism is unknown, but crucial was the discovery that symbols can represent the sounds of words, not just the meanings. The book presents a novel neurologically-inspired hypothesis that writing evolved in an institutional context in which symbols were "dictated", thus driving an association between symbol and sound, and provides a computational simulation to support this hypothesis. The author further discusses some common fallacies about writing and non-linguistic systems, and how these relate to widely cited claims about statistical "evidence" for one or another system being writing. The book ends with some thoughts about the future of graphical symbol systems.
The intended audience includes students, researchers, lecturers, professionals and scientists from fields like Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Archaeology and Semiotics, as well as general readers interested in language and/or writing systems and symbol systems.
商品描述(中文翻譯)
數千年來，人類一直使用可見的標記來傳達信息。現代的傳統圖形符號範例包括書寫語言，以及數學符號或交通標誌等非語言符號系統。後者的符號在不參考語言的情況下傳遞信息。
本書呈現了對圖形符號系統的首次系統性研究，包括從舊石器時代以來的圖形符號歷史、非語言系統的分類（這些系統不與口語語言相連結），以及對25種以上此類系統的調查。許多非語言系統的一個重要特徵是，與書寫語言相似，符號可以組合成複雜的「信息」，如果系統所代表的信息本身是複雜的。為了說明這一點，作者對兩個功能非常相似但結構截然不同的系統進行了深入比較：歐洲的紋章學和日本的家紋。
書寫最早出現在大約5000年前的美索不達米亞，並被認為是從先前的非語言會計系統演變而來。具體的機制尚不清楚，但關鍵在於發現符號可以代表單詞的聲音，而不僅僅是意義。本書提出了一個新穎的神經科學啟發假說，認為書寫是在一種符號被「口述」的制度背景下演變而來，從而促進了符號與聲音之間的聯繫，並提供了一個計算模擬來支持這一假說。作者進一步討論了一些關於書寫和非語言系統的常見謬誤，以及這些謬誤如何與廣泛引用的關於某一系統是否為書寫的統計「證據」的主張相關聯。本書最後對圖形符號系統的未來提出了一些思考。
本書的目標讀者包括自然語言處理、機器學習、考古學和符號學等領域的學生、研究人員、講師、專業人士和科學家，以及對語言和/或書寫系統及符號系統感興趣的一般讀者。
作者簡介
Richard Sproat is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google, Japan, working on Deep Learning for applications in speech and language processing. He attended the University of California, San Diego and then MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1985. He has published widely in various areas of linguistics and computational linguistics, and he has a particular interest in writing systems and symbol systems. His prior relevant books in this area include A Computational Theory of Writing Systems (2000) and Language, Technology, and Society (2010). He has been invited as a speaker to various international venues related to writing and symbol systems, such as the "Signs of Writing" conference (Chicago, 2014; Beijing, 2015), and he was a keynote speaker at "Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century" (Paris, 2022). He was a contributor to the Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System (2016), wrote a chapter (with Amalia Gnanadesikan) on writing systemsin the Oxford Bibliographies (2018), and contributed a chapter on writing systems to the Oxford History of Phonology (2022). He is on the editorial board of "Written Language and Literacy".
作者簡介(中文翻譯)
理查德·斯普羅特（Richard Sproat）是日本谷歌（Google）的一名高級研究科學家，專注於語音和語言處理應用的深度學習。他曾就讀於加州大學聖地亞哥分校（University of California, San Diego），隨後進入麻省理工學院（MIT），於1985年獲得語言學博士學位。他在語言學和計算語言學的各個領域發表了大量的研究，特別對書寫系統和符號系統有濃厚的興趣。他在這一領域的相關著作包括《書寫系統的計算理論》（A Computational Theory of Writing Systems，2000年）和《語言、技術與社會》（Language, Technology, and Society，2010年）。他曾受邀在多個與書寫和符號系統相關的國際會議上發表演講，例如“書寫的跡象”會議（Signs of Writing，2014年芝加哥；2015年北京），並在“21世紀的圖形語言學”（Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century，2022年巴黎）中擔任主題演講者。他是《勞特利奇英語書寫系統手冊》（Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System，2016年）的貢獻者，與阿瑪莉亞·格納德西坎（Amalia Gnanadesikan）共同撰寫了《牛津書目》（Oxford Bibliographies，2018年）中有關書寫系統的章節，並為《牛津音韻學史》（Oxford History of Phonology，2022年）貢獻了一章有關書寫系統的內容。他是《書面語言與識字》（Written Language and Literacy）期刊的編輯委員會成員。
