Corpora of Non-Linguistic Symbol Systems, and Statistical Analysis

Oregon Health & Science University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

Throughout the millenia, humans have used graphical symbols. 5000 years ago, in Mesopotamia, a system of symbols was codified into what was to become the world's first writing system. But in addition to writing systems, many symbol systems have been developed that, though they do communicate information, do not encode language. Such non-linguistic symbol systems include familiar examples such as mathematical symbology, European heraldry, or scouting merit badges, as well as less familiar ones such as Mesopotamian deity symbols or Dakota winter counts. Like writing, such systems are an important part of the cultures that created them. Now suppose one has a symbol system whose interpretation is unknown. Short of deciphering it as a writing system, or otherwise providing a rigorous testable interpretation, are there any methods that can determine whether one is dealing with writing or a non-linguistic system? Some recent high-profile papers have indeed claimed to provide statistical evidence that a couple of ancient systems were linguistic. But, one problem with that work is that in order to determine which of two categories an unknown system belongs to, it is very useful to have a large set of examples of the two categories in question. In the case of writing systems, we now have many electronic corpora from hundreds of languages, both ancient and modern. But electronic corpora of non-linguistic systems are few. This project will fill this void by developing and releasing to the public electronic corpora of a range of non-linguistic systems, including those named above as well as several others. It will also investigate statistical and machine learning methods that might help in distinguishing written language from other graphical communication. And this in turn will lead to a better understanding of a fundamental question about humanity: what sets language apart from other forms of communication?