Scientific Chinese Language & Computing

From Paul Wang

Uncertainty is a very interesting concept indeed. If one failed in an uncertainty situation and pretended it was a certainty, this will breed ignorance for sure. China has always been called ‘middle kingdom’ by Chinese and non Chinese alike for so long. However, there are plenty of evidence that nearly all ancient kingdoms also felt they are the middle kingdom!

A case in point can be found in the book entitled “The Trojan War”, by Thomas Bulfinch, privately printed by Kurt H.Volk, Inc. in 1957. There is a passage on page 9:”The Greeks believed the earth to be flat and circular, their own country occupying the middle of it, the central point being either Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, or Delphi, so famous for its oracle.”

I believe this kind of nomenclature may be needed to boost the moral, but for the long run it is unhealthy to think that way! Personally, I would like Chinese to do more soul searching for creating and paying much more attention to fundamental science, especially the natural sciences, rather than overly pragmatics by overly eager to get rich and endless trying to acquire more power. Uniqueness, creativity, and imagination are essential prescriptions for leadership. The short cuts and the policy of yi[v] du[v] go[-]ng du[v] simply would not do!

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From Paul Wang,

When we use the nomenclature of AI, Artificial Intelligence, we ought to be very careful to define exactly what is A.I. Part of reasons would be there has been too much hype and misuse the definition.

A.I. research seeks both to reproduce the outcome of our intelligent behavior by non-biological means, and to produce the non-biological equivalent of our intelligence.

Engineering [financial resources]: intelligent behavior reproduction: astoundingly successful!

Cognitive Science [academic power] : intelligence production: dismal disappointment!

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From Paul Wang

The topic of “Measure Word” indeed is a serious investigation subject,these are not unique to Chinese Language. In fact, you see similar in English language;

a gaggle of geese,
a piece of fruit cake,
two pints of 1% milk,
………….

However, the difference is in Chinese language, measure words are mandatory when giving a number of nouns. It is important to put them in. Also it is important to get them right!

A study concerning the measure words is just one of many significant topics for future research. FACEBOOK is already big, in terms of the number of users and the potential! There are talks going on the IPO of the Facebook may be the biggest in Wall Street history.

The time has changed and moving fast. The growing influence of the Social Web, the web of communication as well as human interaction on the lives of people of the world can not and should not be ignored. It is our belief these line of research will inevitably involve several interdisciplinary research.It also confirms the important of the Trinity, which begins with Scientific Chinese Language.

Finally, we like to thank you one more time for bringing this topic to our attention. It also gives us an opportunity to reassure us the value of our web sites and the reform we are pushing hard.

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From Paul Wang,

Statistics on Chinese Words Copyrighted by Sun & Wang (170112)

One of the big issues for Pinyin is that it shares exactly same syllable but with different meanings. Since Chinese words are all mono-syllables, it is not surprising that there are large number of words end up with exactly the same unit of pronunciation with a single vocal sound – literally down to the same tone as well.

Notions on Syllables, unit of pronunciation with a single vocal sound.

• [-] : First tone (high even pitch )
• ['] : Second tone (rising pitch )
• [v] : Third tone (falling and then rising )
• [`] : Fourth tone (falling pitch )

[ ] symbol is for the letter immediately to the right position.

Part I

Number of different words having exactly the same syllable, 20-25

• 25 : xi[-] ,yi[`]
• 24 : —-
• 23 : ji[`] ,
• 22 : —-
• 21 : ji[-] ,shi[`] ,
• 20 : —-

All these compilations are based upon the following popular Collins Chinese Concise Dictionary, Second Edition, 2006, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN-10 0-00-722391-6. The publisher has claimed there are more than 140,000 entries and translations, however, we can not locate the vital statistical data as basic as the total number of Chinese words collected in this dictionary. Further more, we have no choice, but to compile our own data for the arguments we need to make for the task of promoting SCL, Scientific Chinese Language and its possible improvements!  Copyrighted by Sun & Wang

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From Zhaohao Sun in response to Chongfu Huang’s comment,

Reasoning with Chinese words are important for Chinese scholars although they have not time to look at it. You can use it in your  risk analysis. You can also ask your students to publish their research results in English in our NMNC. Many researchers at your University has done in this direction. Internationalization of your research is also national goal of China. Of course, we also hope to work together to apply for international cooperation grant as one part of 973 Program etc. with your help,

From Paul Wang in response to Chongfu Huang’s comment,

In the recent weeks, I found out , by compiling statistical data using a whole reputable dictionary and Zhaohao and I together be able to show the AI must come to a rescue to solve the problem of multiple completely different [semantically speaking] meanings, but exactly the same PINYING.The problem is very serious, I am not joking!  Please do help spread the message in order to save Han language. Nowadays, unfortunately, one is rewarded with excellent English, and even look down with good Chinese. We must change this mental block–it is a crisis!

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Reasoning with Chinese words is not only important from the semantics or understanding Chinese words is concerned. It is equally, even more importantly in correct word identification point of view. This is one of many historical evolution baggage’s  we must undertaken, because the number of Chinese words for a single syllable sound can be as high as 27! [So far, based upon our research results, copy-righted and to be published].

In this talking point, we use the above narrative only as an example to convince our readers the reason why ‘Reasoning with Chinese words ‘ is such a crucial instrument to compensate the short coming of the historical evolution of the Chinese language.

Pinyin was adopted by People’s Republic of China in 1958 and pretty much an International Standard as we speak. Pinyin is the Romanization system used through out China as well as overseas.

In terms of the usage, you need to look at each word carefully–they can look similar, but have very different meanings. For example,  ZO[v]U means “to go” and ZUO[`] means “to sit”.[5D]

Pinyin also includes “tone marks”. Mandarin Chinese has four tones, and one “toneless” tone. The tone you use when pronouncing each one-syllable word determines the meaning. The tone marks [-],['],[v],and [`] show which tone to use. The above paragraph you see two of the tones in action!

Finally, this is a shocker to for you; we found at least one Chinese word syllable sound, even with exact the same tone, has as many as 27 meanings, semantically speaking.

Reference

[5D]  Mandarin Chinese for beginners, DK Get talking Chinese. ISBN 978-0-7566-2902-1 ,Katharine Carruthers and Yu Bin , 2007.

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