An ontology for digital graphematjcs and philology Die - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Paolo Monella

Die (hyper-)diplomatjsche Transkriptjon und ihre Erkenntnispotentjale Bergische Universität Wuppertal (BUW), 6 February 2020

An ontology for digital graphematjcs and philology

Outline

Outline

• Interoperability
• f digital scholarly editjons (DSEs)

based on diplomatjc transcriptjons

• Digital modelling (ontology)
• f pre-modern writjng systems

–

Graphemes / allographs

–

Allographs: capitals, ligatures, positjonal variants, emphasis etc.

• In practjce:

how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

• Open issues

Interoperability: the issue

Interoperability: the issue

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū

Diplomatic

• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum
• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum

venenum

• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum
• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum
• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability: the issue

• uenenū
• venenum
• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability: the issue

• My focus: European Medieval handwritjng

–

...and early print (imitatjng handwritjng)

Interoperability: the issue

• My focus: European Medieval handwritjng

–

...and early print (imitatjng handwritjng)

–

Pre-Gutenberg (and shortly afuer)

• Alphabetjc writjng systems (so far)

–

Latjn script (Italian, English...), Greek, Cyrillic...

–

No non-alphabetjc (Cuneiform, Arabic, Chinese etc.)

Interoperability: current solutjons

Unicode (TEI’s recommendatjon)

• Solutjon for new digital texts
• Not enough for pre-modern writjng systems

–

Allographs

• ſ (U+017F) / s (U+0073; ASCII 115)
• Have I encoded that they correspond to each other (variants of

grapheme <s>)?

Unicode (TEI’s recommendatjon)

• Solutjon for new digital texts
• Not enough for pre-modern writjng systems

–

Allographs

• ſ (U+017F) / s (U+0073; ASCII 115)
• Have I encoded that they correspond to each other (variants of

grapheme <s>)?

–

Ligatures

• & (U+0026; ASCII 38)
• Have I encoded that it is equivalent to “e + t” in that MS?

–

Grapheme set

• u (U+0075; ASCII 117)
• Have I encoded whether it “covers” (or not) <u> and <v>?

Diplomatjc/normalized: the surrender?

• venenum
• uenenū

Diplomatic Normalized

• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (distant reading)...
• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Project-specifjc solutjons

• Disposable home-made solutjons
• Normalizatjon sofuware and strategies
• TEI: theory-agnostjc

Interoperability through modelling

Interoperability through modelling

• Scholarly discussion on modelling
• Documentjng project-specifjc modelling

and normalizatjon practjces

–

prose

–

formal (sofuware code, tables)

• Shared models
• Reusable sofuware libraries

An ontology for digital graphematjcs and philology

Ontology

Grapheme Alphabeme Token (inflected word) Lemma Allograph

• Legature
• Abbreviation
• Logograph
• Alphabetic Grapheme
• Abbreviation Mark
• Brevigraph
• Diacritic
• Space
• Punctuation
• Metamark

is_a +

Ontology

Grapheme Linguistic Gr. Textual Gr. Logograph Intra-verbal Gr. {+alphabetic} {-alphabetic} Diacritic Alphabetic Grapheme Abbreviation Mark Brevigraph Space Meta- mark Punc- tuation is_a

Ontology

Grapheme Alphabeme Token (inflected word) Lemma Allograph

• Legature
• Abbreviation
• Logograph
• Alphabetic Grapheme
• Abbreviation Mark
• Brevigraph
• Diacritic
• Space
• Punctuation
• Metamark

is_a +

Ontology

Grapheme Alphabeme Token (inflected word) Lemma Allograph

• Legature
• Abbreviation
• Logograph
• Alphabetic Grapheme
• Abbreviation Mark
• Brevigraph
• Diacritic
• Space
• Punctuation
• Metamark

is_a +

Digital modelling for pre-modern writjng systems

Digital modelling

Digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium
• Comparatur vel ad se vel ad alium

He is compared to himself or to another

Digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium
• Comparatur vel ad se vel ad alium

He is compared to himself or to another

Digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

Digital modelling

• Comparatur vel ad se vel ad alium

He is compared to himself or to another

Digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

A structural approach to digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

Text System

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

Entities Analysis

A structural approach to digital modelling

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

Text System

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

Entities Analysis

Digital modelling

Graphemes/allographs

Graphemes/allographs: the commutatjon test

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

Text

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

System

Comparatur vel ad se vel ad alium He is compared to himself or to another

«τ»

Graphemes/allographs: the commutatjon test

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

Text

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

System

«√»

System

«τ»

Substitution: → No change in “denotative meaning”

Graphemes/allographs: the commutatjon test

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

Commutation: → Change in “denotative meaning”

«√»

«τ»

Substitution: → No change in “denotative meaning”

Graphemes/allographs: the commutatjon test

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

Commutation: → Change in “denotative meaning”

«√»

Allographs Graphemes

«τ»

Substitution: → No change in “denotative meaning”

Graphemes/allographs: the commutatjon test

• co̊paraƐur uł adſe uładalium

<z> <y> <x> <t> <s>

Commutation: → Change in “denotative meaning”

«√»

Allographs Graphemes Gr Allogr t: τ | Ɛ | √ u: u | v z: z

Graphemes / allographs: what to transcribe?

• What the project wants!

–

based on its scientjfjc interests

–

(and on tjme / money)

• But: framed in a larger model

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s t u z · ;

MS A MS B

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s t u z · ;

OCR from Teubner

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

OCR from Loeb

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• The toolbox of the scribe

–

Defjnitjon of graphemes, allographs…

• Writjng systems as autonomous semiotjc systems (Sampson)

–

Not as epiphenomena of oral language (phonemes)

–

Mandarin / cantonese

–

“Opaque” orthographies (English)

• “knight”, “aile”, “read”, “read” (past tense)

–

Medieval MSS: pronunciatjon?

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• “In language there are only difgerences” (Saussure)

–

“But the statement that everything in language is negatjve is true

• nly if the signifjed and the signifjer are considered separately;

when we consider the sign in its totality, we have something that is positjve in its own class”

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• Can we defjne the scribe’s (graphematjc, signifjer) toolbox

under complete ignorance of the linguistjc (meaning, signifjed) dimension?

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• Can we defjne the scribe’s toolbox under complete ignorance
• f the linguistjc dimension?

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• Can we defjne the scribe’s toolbox under complete ignorance
• f the linguistjc dimension?

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Segmentation

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• Can we defjne the scribe’s toolbox under complete ignorance
• f the linguistjc dimension?

Devanāgarī அட௉ந்த பைன ிடீக்கூம் ட௉க தடீட௉யூம் ிடீக்கூம் - ஈ.வி.பைக.எஸ். இளங்பைகவன் வரூம் பைதர்தலில் ஐபைக் நிறூவனத்ன் இட௉ ந் ிற்ற உள்பைளம்: ஸ்லின் ிரசந்த் கிபை$ரின் நிறூவனத்ன் இட௉ ந்

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Saussure, pertjnence and the scribe’s toolbox

• Can we defjne the scribe’s toolbox under complete ignorance
• f the linguistjc dimension?

a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p q r s t u v z . , ; : !

Devanāgarī Turkish, Latin, Italian, English

Can allographs have a distjnctjve value?

√ √ √ √ τ τ τ τ τ

Allographs

Ɛ

Ɛ

√ √ √ √ τ τ τ τ τ

Allographs

Ɛ

• 1. «τ»
• 2. «Ɛ»

3.«√»

Ɛ

Capitals: allographs or graphemes?

• Cool (CA) is a cool town

Geographical name

• Smith is a good smith

Proper name

• ODD fjles are odd fjles

Acronym

OK for contemporary Western writing systems Not for classical/medieval handwriting (see later)

Capitals: allographs or graphemes?

Grapheme <D> Allograph «D» Allograph «d» Archi-grapheme D

Grapheme <D> Grapheme <d>

Alphabeme D

Grapheme <D> Grapheme <d>

• R. Mordenti
• F. Neuber
• P. Monella
• Cool (CA) is a cool town

Geographical name

• Smith is a good smith

Proper name

• ODD fjles are odd fjles

Acronym

• I go because I have to. Stay here!

I go because I have to stay here!

Sentence segmentatjon: distjnctjve value for meaning of the whole text

Capitals

Sentence segmentatjon: distjnctjve value for meaning of the whole text

Capitals Punctuation

• I go because I have to. Stay here!

I go because I have to stay here!

• σαῦρος, ſucceſs, daſs (daß)

Word segmentatjon: distjnctjve value for meaning of the whole text

• σαῦρος, ſucceſs, daſs (daß)

Paulus suſtjnet me (Paolo holds me up) Paulus ſus tjnet me (Paolo the pig holds me)

Word segmentatjon: distjnctjve value for meaning of the whole text

Positional allograph

• σαῦρος, ſucceſs, daſs (daß)

Paulus suſtjnet me (Paolo holds me up) Paulus ſus tjnet me (Paolo the pig holds me)

Word segmentatjon: distjnctjve value for meaning of the whole text

Space Positional allograph

Connotators

Connotators

𝖝𝖎𝖕

WHO

≠ Connotator

“Gothic” (marked)

Connotator

“Gaul” (not marked) Pertinence

Connotators

Connotators, pertjnent for the writer

• graphemes as entjtjes

Emphasis

• the Evangelist wrote

Respect

Connotators

Distjnctjve value (pertjnence) of allographs?

• Pertjnent difgerences defjne entjtjes (graphemes, allographs)

–

Distjnctjve value

–

• etjc vs -emic

«Ɛ»

(Non-)pertjnent allographs: positjonal variants

• Complementary distributjon

–

Hjelmslev’s “varietjes”

«τ» «√»

Allographs

«Ɛ»

(Non-)pertjnent allographs: positjonal variants

• Ligatures
• Non-pertjnent for the writer
• Connotators, pertjnent

for (some) readers

–

editors, paleographers, codicologists, historians studying a MS / book

–

(Beneventan vs Caroline script, print font, ſ / s)

«τ» «√»

Allographs

(Non-)pertjnent allographs: free variants

√ √ √ √ τ τ τ τ τ Ɛ

Ɛ

• Non-pertjnent for the writer
• Connotators, pertjnent

for (some) readers

–

editors, paleographers, codicologists, historians studying a MS / book

–

(Beneventan vs Caroline script, print font, ſ / s)

(Non-)pertjnent allographs: free variants

• Infjnite
• Contjnuum → discrete

–

It is diffjcult to draw boundaries

–

Digital (=discrete) modelling

• Hjelmlev: metasemiology

√ √ √ √ τ τ τ τ τ Ɛ

Ɛ

Distjnctjve value (pertjnence) of allographs?

• Graphemes change denotatjve meaning

–

fame vs name

–

Hjelmslev: denotatjve semiotjcs

• Allographs can have other forms of distjnctjve value (pertjnence)

–

For the writer

• 𝖝𝖎𝖕

vs

WHO

• Hjelmslev: connotative semiotics

–

For the reader (digital editor)

• Digital editors can set their own pertinence (transcription) criteria

–

based on their scientific interests

–

E.g.: fraktur font → political connotation in WW1

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

• How can a structural digital modelling
• f the graphemes/allographs distjnctjon

make my DSE more interoperable?

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

OCR/HTT (witness A)

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss Allographic transcription unter dem ſchloſs

Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

OCR/HTT (witness A)

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss Allographic transcription unter dem ſchloſs

Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

OCR/HTT (witness A)

Unicode characters Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss Allographic transcription unter dem ſchloſs

Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

OCR/HTT (witness A)

Unicode characters Markup / annotation Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss Allographic transcription unter dem ſchloſs

Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss unter dem ſchloſs

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

Allographic transcription

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss unter dem ſchloſs

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Allographic transcription

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss unter dem ſchloſs

Gr Allogr s: s t: τ | Ɛ | √ u: u | V Gr Allogr s: s | ſ t: t u: u

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Allographic transcription

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss unter dem ſchloſs

Gr Allogr s: s t: τ | Ɛ | √ u: u | V Gr Allogr s: s | ſ t: t u: u

unter dem schloss

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

unter dem schloss

• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Allographic transcription Graphematic transcription

In practjce: how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

Vnτer <hi>dem</hi> schloss unter dem ſchloſs

Gr Allogr s: s t: τ | Ɛ | √ u: u | V Gr Allogr s: s | ſ t: t u: u

unter dem schloss

• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

OCR/HTT (witness A) Manual (selective) transcription (witness B)

unter dem schloss

(More) interoperability

• Historical documentation
• Visualization
• Processing
• (Erkenntnispotentiale)

Allographic transcription Graphematic transcription

Open issues

Open issues

• Individual allographs

–

Distjnctjve value / pertjnence (capitals, punctuatjon etc.)

–

Ligature segmentatjon one (&) or two (et)?

Open issues

• Allographic words

–

Spelling (wife / wyfge)

Open issues

• Allographic words

–

Spelling (wife / wyfge)

–

Abbreviatjons (ūter / unter)

Open issues

ūter dem schloss

• Allographic words

–

Spelling (wife / wyfge)

–

Abbreviatjons (ūter / unter)

unter dem schloss

Graphematic

ūter dem ſchloſs unter dem ſchloſs

Allographic

Open issues

ūter dem schloss [unter]

• Allographic words

–

Spelling (wife / wyfge)

–

Abbreviatjons (ūter / unter)

unter dem schloss [unter]

Graphematic

ūter dem ſchloſs unter dem ſchloſs

Allographic Linguistic (normalized)

Open issues

ūter dem schloss [unter]

• Processing
• Search
• Collation
• NLP (lemma, PoS etc.)
• Statistics (dist. reading)

Interoperability

• Allographic words

–

Spelling (wife / wyfge)

–

Abbreviatjons (ūter / unter)

unter dem schloss [unter]

Graphematic

ūter dem ſchloſs unter dem ſchloſs

Allographic Linguistic (normalized)

Outline

Outline

• Interoperability
• f digital scholarly editjons (DSEs)

based on diplomatjc transcriptjons

• Digital modelling (ontology)
• f pre-modern writjng systems

–

Graphemes / allographs

–

Allographs: capitals, ligatures, positjonal variants, emphasis etc.

• In practjce:

how can grapheme/allograph modelling make my DSE more interoperable?

• Open issues