Pasigraphy

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File:Basicsymbols.JPG
Basic Blissymbols.

A pasigraphy (from Greek πᾶσι pasi "to all" and γράφω grapho "to write") is a writing system where each written symbol represents a concept (rather than a word or sound or series of sounds in a spoken language).

The aim is to be intelligible to persons of all languages. The invention of the term is attributed to Joseph de Maimieux in 1797, however complete pasigraphic systems had been proposed before (Johann Joachim Becher, 1661). The International maritime signal flags and the Dewey Decimal Classification are official pasigraphies. In his presentation, however, probably for the sake of popularisation, Joseph de Maimieux defines pasigraphy as "the art of writing for everyone".[1]

Some pasigraphies can be very close to the notion of ideogram (non-figurative symbol) and pictogram (figurative symbol).

Examples of alphabetic pasigraphy

Leopold Einstein reviews 60 attempts at creating an international auxiliary language, the majority of the 17th–18th century projects being pasigraphies of one kind or another,[4] and several pasigraphies and auxiliary languages, including some sample texts, are also reviewed in Arika Okrent's book on constructed languages.[5] Leibniz wrote about the alphabet of human thought and Alexander von Humboldt corresponded with Peter Stephen Du Ponceau who proposed a universal phonetic alphabet.

Ernst Schröder and then Henri Poincaré called the system of signs invented by Giuseppe Peano to write logical and mathematical propositions pasigraphie (see Formulario mathematico). However, as Louis Couturat points out,[6] Peano did not claim this term, and presented his system of notations not only as an artificial language but also as a tool for analysing mathematical theories.

Today's mathematicians still use, to a limited extent, certain mathematical notations inspired by Peano, in the same way that they have been using symbolic calculus for longer, when it is useful for the clarity of the exposition. But they do not claim to use this as a universal script to codify their work. Logicians do use a systematic and universal script (although there are variations, depending on the school, but they are inessential), but it is the object of their work or a tool for it, not the way to communicate it.

We can see a modern continuation of Peano's work in the formalisation of mathematics on machines, using proof assistants. Formal writing is essential, but here again, the concern, for the moment at least, is not for universal writing.

Examples of pasigraphies include Blissymbols, Real Character, and IConji.

See also

References

  1. Albani Paolo; Berlinghiero Buonarroti (2001). Dictionnaire des langues imaginaires. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
  2. Eco, Umberto (1995). The Search for the Perfect Language. Oxford: Blackwell.
  3. Curado, José Manuel (1986). "A Utopia Linguística de Dantas Pereira: da Escriptura Pasigraphica à Impossível Língua Perfeita", Diacrítica, No. 11, pp. 409–97.
  4. Leopold Einstein, "Al la historio de la Provoj de Lingvoj Tutmondaj de Leibniz ĝis la Nuna Tempo", 1884. Reprinted in Fundamenta Krestomatio, UEA 1992 [1903].
  5. Arika Okrent, In The Land of Invented Languages, Spiegel & Grau 2009 (ISBN 0385527888).
  6. Couturat, Louis (1906). "Pour la logistique," Revue de métaphysique et de morale, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 211–12.


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