[AISWorld] 3rd CFP: Scientific Chinese Civilization: A Great Trinity of A Grand Challenging Research
Zhaohao Sun
zhaohao.sun at gmail.com
Sun Oct 3 20:12:34 EDT 2010
CALL FOR PAPERS
News Release
*Scientific Chinese Civilization: A Great Trinity of A Grand Challenging
Research Project*
“Those Who Cannot Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It”
----------------George Santayana
The Journal of New Mathematics & Natural Computing, published by WSPC,
ISSN:1793-0057 [print] and ISSN:1793-7027 [electronic], is pleased to
announce a CFP, Call For Papers, on the topic entitled :
*Scientific Chinese Civilization: A Great Trinity of A Grand Challenging
Research Project*
More than half a century of intensive research on artificial intelligence
(AI) has concluded that the problem of linguistics must be solved before we
can make any progress in truly intelligent systems, AI research today has
been forced to reduce merely to deal with some basic issues such as the data
mining and web semantics. Chinese language must take the advantage of what
we have already learned from that of English language so far as the CWW
(Computing With Words) is concerned, especially the implications of those
fundamental theory of Noam Chomsky & Claude Shannon introduced in the 1950s.
We claim the CWW issue of Scientific Chinese language, in reality, is the
foundation of a much larger problem of Scientific Chinese Civilization. The
enclosed write-up by Zhaohao Sun and Paul P. Wang provides much needed
background, motivation and, at least, our version of the definition of the
Grand Challenge.
This Special Issue (SI) has been quite loosely defined because we need all
participants to contribute in even the very basic definitions. One thing we
are certain of is the importance and the urging nature of the issue. Even
though there are no lack of efforts in terms of the interested scholars and
their associations. Frankly, we feel, overall speaking, the lack of urgency
and lay back attitude have prevented them from significant gains over all
these years.
As pointed out by Sun and Wang, numerous reforms of the Chinese Language
have led to good results. The painful evolutionary history of the Chinese
language, nevertheless, made it clear the need of some dramatically reform,
especially the computer and information revolution are here to stay and we
must have some strategy for the development which begins with Scientific
Chinese Words reform for the benefit of future generations.
There are estimated to have 1.4 billion people who use Chinese language, a
10,000 specialists research Institute would consume only 0.00071428% of the
total human resource! Yet the benefit and the impact derived from this
Institute can be really huge! Therefore, this CFP is very much a document of
an urge, a pleading, nearly a manifesto!
In addition to the 26 items outlined in Sun and Wang's write -up, you may
suggest the favorable topics you think are important, such as some suggested
items listed as follows:
27. Historical evolution of a long surviving language and how to reform for
future need.
28. How a 1,000 specialists research Institute can be funded.
29. How can such a Grand Challenge be entirely free from political
complication?
30. A comparative study on the benefit of this Grand Challenge.
Milestones
---------
October 30, 2010 Letter of the intention, including a few lines
of abstract.
January 30, 2011 First draft submission [no more than 30 pages]
March 30, 2011 Notification of acceptance/revision/rejection
June 30, 2011 Final paper due
September 31, 2011 Publication production
Inquiry & Submission
--------------------
Zhaohao Sun
University of Ballarat, Australia
e-mail: z.sun at ballarat.edu.au
fax: +61-3-5327 9289
Paul P.Wang
Duke University, USA
e-mail: ppw at ee.duke.edu
fax: 919 660 5293
Scientific Chinese Words, Language and Culture: A Computing Perspective
Zhaohao Sun, Paul P. Wang
Contents
CALL FOR PAPERS. 1 <#_Toc273953568>
Scientific Chinese Words, Language and Culture: A Computing
Perspective. 3<#_Toc273953569>
Zhaohao Sun, Paul P. Wang. 3 <#_Toc273953570>
Contents. 3 <#_Toc273953571>
1 Scientific Chinese Civilization. 3 <#_Toc273953572>
2 Scientific Chinese words. 4 <#_Toc273953573>
2.1 Brief History of Chinese Words. 4 <#_Toc273953574>
2.2 Creation of Chinese New Words. 5 <#_Toc273953575>
3 Scientific Chinese Language. 5 <#_Toc273953576>
4 Scientific Chinese Culture: The Computing of Chinese Culture.
6<#_Toc273953577>
5 References. 6 <#_Toc273953613>
1 Scientific Chinese Civilization
In contrast with the rapid development of Chinese economy at an almost
overwhelming speed, and its salient influence on the economy and
civilization of the world, we have many reasons to say that Chinese words,
language and culture are in crisis or in danger, because there are not a
revolutionary change nor scientific reform in Chinese words, language and
culture at least from the Qin Dynasty with the change of social and economic
development. The re-emergence of Confucianism introduced in 400 BC is an
example. Our endeavour is to examine Chinese words, Chinese language, and
Chinese culture using Scientific Chinese words, scientific Chinese language
and scientific Chinese culture as our motivation.
Scientific Chinese words, scientific Chinese language and scientific Chinese
culture form the trinity of scientific Chinese civilization. These three are
closely related to modernization of Chinese society, economy and formation
of knowledge economy and knowledge society in China in special in
Chinese-spoken communities in the world in general. Chinese words and
Chinese language are the carrier of Chinese information, knowledge and
Chinese culture. They are also an important component of Chinese culture
(Song et al, 2009)
Scientific Chinese words, scientific Chinese language and scientific Chinese
culture are at three different levels in hierarchy. Scientific Chinese words
are at a fundamental level. Scientific Chinese language is at the
intermediary level, and scientific Chinese culture is at a top level.
Chinese words play a pivotal role in making Chinese civilization continuing
without interruption in the civilization history of human being.
“Scientific” in our research means that the understanding of and
investigation into either Chinese words or Chinese language or Chinese
culture using all modern science and technology, especially computing
science and technology. Computing is a modern science and technology moving
us from traditional civilization to web civilization.
Chinese information processing (CIP) and Chinese character information
processing (CCIP) have dominated Chinese scholars’ research in the past 60
years (Song et al, 2009). However, these are only a part of our trinity,
because CIP and CCIP can only be at technical level serving the
above-mentioned trinity, although they are indispensible (see Section 2).
This reflects a commonsense: We do not appreciate the essence of the forest,
only because we are in the forest. Obviously, CIP and CCIP have no intention
of extending Chinese character information and Chinese information beyond
“processing” to more general layer, e.g. “computing” or the top layer,
scientific. This is the critical weakness of CIP and CCIP. We select a
computing perspective, because we are computing scientists. Further
computing is a revolutionary paradigm that likes an engine to move the
science and technology as well society towards the more brilliant future of
human being.
We use the trinity formed by scientific Chinese words, scientific Chinese
language, and scientific Chinese culture to re-examine, explore and develop
Chinese words, Chinese language and Chinese culture to facilitate the
development of scientific Chinese civilization and to promote the emergence
of a new generation of scientific Chinese.
The authors have Googled “Scientific Chinese Culture”, “Scientific Chinese
Language”, “Scientific Chinese Words”. Either of them has no webpage googled
in the Google world. We have also Googled “Computing of Chinese Culture”,
“Computing of Chinese Language”, “Computing of Chinese Words”. Either of
them has no webpage googled in the Google world- 120610. This is the reason
why our ideas are breakthrough or innovative.
2 Scientific Chinese words
Chinese words (characters, *hanzi*) are one of the oldest words in history
(Hong, 2010). Chinese words are the blood and soul of Chinese language and
Chinese culture. From a computing perspective, scientific Chinese words can
be narrowed to “the computing of Chinese words”, in which there is a
research direction: computing with Chinese words, motivated by computing
with words (Wang, 2001). However, computing here is at the most general
level, same as computing as a discipline. More specifically, scientific
Chinese words at least consists of
1. Technologies of Chinese words,
2. Engineering of Chinese words,
3. Management of Chinese words,
4. Systems of Chinese words,
5. Reasoning of Chinese words: Reasoning with Chinese words (two
meanings: 1. Chinese words possess fuzziness, 2. Chinese problem solving or
commonsense are based on words (clauses)
6. Semantic net of Chinese words,
7. Ontology of Chinese words,
8. Standards (Notations) of Chinese words (Some of these have been done
by Chinese Government),
9. Reform of Chinese words: Three core tasks: Simplification, pinyin
and putonghua to promote the Chinese language and culture (Song et al,
2009),
10. Processing of Chinese words is interchangeably with Chinese information
processing or Chinese Character information processing (Song et al, 2009),
or Chinese Character information processing.
The key ideas behind scientific Chinese words are that modernisation of
Chinese culture. We consider it as scientific Chinese language and
scientific Chinese culture, relying on modernisation of Chinese words, the
latter depends on the computing of Chinese words at least from a computing
perspective. In fact, the similar topics are suitable to Chinese language
and Chinese culture.
2.1 Brief History of Chinese Words
* *
Chinese words have a few* **thousand** **years (4000-5000 years old) of
history since its inception of Xiang form words *(Song et al, 2009; Hong,
2010)*, because it has formed a word system in 14th century B.C. in the Xia
Dynasty (*Hong, 2010*) with one word representing a symbol. Qing Dynasty *(BC
221-206) *unified and standardized Chinese words.* Normalization, lineation
(*Xian tiao hua*), and simplification dominate the evolution of Chinese
words since the Qin Dynasty (BC 221-206) by simplifying and normalizing *Da
Zhuan* through *Jiagu* words to *Xiao Zhuan* words and then *Lishu* words,
which are still used for study in primary schools in China. Lisu was further
simplified into *Kaishu* in Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, which is still an
important kind of Chinese word system. With the development of printing
technology in Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), the printable Chinese words as a
notation was formed and named as *Song Ti*, which is still dominating the
printable Chinese words in publications and all the media in China.
Na (2009) believes that Chinese words have feelings, colors and smells. They
are not only magic but also interesting. They have long history and
meaningful culture. Every word has a story, every one has eyes. They watch
reappear and imitate the world. Every word has big ears, they listen,
accept, and record the world. Chinese words have firm teeth and mouth they
are telling us many beautiful and old stories.
As mentioned early, Qin Dynasty unified the Chinese words and simplified the
Chinese words. This is a revolutionary action, which makes the Chinese words
into ordinary people, that is, an ordinary Chinese can read, know, recognize
and use Chinese words. The Chinese language and culture based on Chinese
words begin to form and develop.
In the modern history, May 4 Movements in 1919 is an important event for
Chinese words, Chinese language, and Chinese culture. That movement promoted
the simplified Chinese culture (as well as Pinyin of Chinese words).
Baihuawen is a secondary consequence of that movement. The mission of
simplified Chinese words serves the absolute majority of ordinary Chinese
rather than elite or intellectuals to know, read, recognize and use Chinese
words, language and culture. Therefore, simplified Chinese words, as a
movement, are a thorough progress after 1949 taking into account that the
majority of Chinese were illiterate at that time.
2.2 Creation of Chinese New Words
Comparing with English words, Chinese words are relatively closed and stable
from a system viewpoint, because the vocabulary has basically not changed
and added in the past 1000 years since Song Dynasty. However, how to create
a Chinese new word? What is the fundamental for creating a Chinese word? are
important issues from a computing viewpoint. Further, the emperor of Tang
Dynasty, Wu Zetian, created a new Chinese word. Can we create a Chinese
word? What principles we should adhere to is also a big issue. – 240510.
3 Scientific Chinese Language
>From a computing perspective, we can narrow our topic to: The Computing of
Chinese Language. For a foreigner who studies Chinese language for a whole.
Communication in Chinese is normally not a big issue. However, the big issue
is scientific Chinese language, or the computing of Chinese language from a
computing perspective. The following topics are recommended, by not limited
to.
11. Technologies of Chinese Language,
12. Engineering of Chinese Language,
13. Management of Chinese Language,
14. Systems of Chinese Language,
15. Reasoning of Chinese Language, Reasoning in Chinese Language,
16. Semantic net of Chinese Language,
17. Natural knowledge discovery and knowledge mining in Chinese (e.g.
Qinghua (Tsinghua) University, and Beijing University, Chinese LDL),
18. Computing with Chinese (like with natural language),
19. Machine translation between Chinese and other languages,
20. Ontology of Chinese Language (e.g. Dong, Zhendong, HowNet,
http://www.keenage.com/html/c_index.html),
21. Processing of Chinese Language: Chinese language information
processing, which is used in China officially (Song, 2009).
4 Scientific Chinese Culture: The Computing of Chinese Culture
The Chinese culture exists as a comprehensive abstraction from Chinese
history, education, and superstructure etc. Because of long history (more
than 2000 years) of feudalism in China, there are relatively less scientific
components in Chinese culture. Therefore, using scientific (engineering)
methods, technologies, and tools to reform Chinese culture become a critical
issue for developing scientific Chinese civilization. The following topics
are recommended, by not limited to.
22. Technologies of Chinese culture,
23. Engineering of Chinese culture,
24. Management of Chinese culture,
25. Systems of Chinese culture,
26. Processing of Chinese culture.
At the moment, we focus on scientific Chinese words and scientific Chinese
language, because culture is a very controversial topic, it is also a more
general topic. However, we must clarify the relationships among scientific
Chinese words, scientific Chinese language and scientific Chinese culture.
In fact, the modern history of Chinese culture is based on the
simplification and standardization of Chinese words from 1949 on (Song et al
2009). This evolution or revolution benefits the improvement of cultured
Chinese (from illiterate to literate).
5 References
[1]. Zong, C., Cao, Y., and Yu, S. (2009) History of Chinese Information
Processing for six decades. Retrieved from
www.nlpr.ia.ac.cn/2009papers/gnkw/nk12.pdf
on 13 June 2010<http://www.nlpr.ia.ac.cn/2009papers/gnkw/nk12.pdf%20on%2013%2006%2010>.
[2]. Wang, P.P (ed.) (2001) Computing With Words. John Wiley & Sons
Publishing, Inc. 2001
[3]. Hong, E. 2010, 中国文字史.
http://baike.baidu.com/view/3488563.htm?fr=ala0_1
[4]. Rongbo Wang, Xiaohua Wang, Zheru Chi, Zhiqun Chen, "Chinese
Sentence Similarity Measure Based on Words and Structure Information,"
alpit, pp.27-31, 2008 International Conference on Advanced Language
Processing and Web Information Technology, 2008 (available online)
[5]. Noam Chomsky ,"Aspects of the Theory of Syntax". The M.I.T.
Press,1965
[6]. NA (2009) I love Chinese characters.
http://library.thinkquest.org/09jan-oracle-n-001/02072/page_485029497.html
[7]. History of Chinese Words
http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97%E5%8F%B2. on
240510
[8]. Evolution of Chinese Words
http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/117051370.html?fr=qrl&cid=974&index=1&fr2=query,
on 24 05 10
[9]. 国家语言文字工作委员会, 2008年中国语言生活状况报告.
http://www.china-language.gov.cn/33/2009_12_4/1_33_4410_0_1259911487375.html
[10]. Rongbo Wang, Xiaohua Wang, Zheru Chi, Zhiqun Chen, "Chinese Sentence
Similarity Measure Based on Words and Structure Information," alpit,
pp.27-31, 2008 International Conference on Advanced Language Processing and
Web Information Technology, 2008 (available online)
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