TY - JOUR
T1 - Semantic classifiers (determinatives) and categorization in the ancient Egyptian writing system
T2 - Rules, list of classifiers, and studies by iClassifier on the Story of Sinuhe
AU - Goldwasser, Orly
AU - Soler, Susana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s).
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - In the last two decades, we have extensively explored the semantic classifiers in ancient Egyptian scripts, showing how they encode the world from two complementary perspectives: universal cognitive tendencies of classification along with Egyptian society's categorization of the world. Our central hypothesis is that each graphemic classifier in the Egyptian writing system heads a conceptual category. The assemblage of words classified by a particular classifier presents us with a dynamic map of an emic category in the mind of a culture. Classifiers in the Egyptian script allow us to trace central and marginal members of conceptual categories, spot interrelations and overlaps between categories, observe diachronic developments and changes, and discover incompatibility of categories. The number of classifier occurrences in complex script systems amounts to millions (i.e., big data).
AB - In the last two decades, we have extensively explored the semantic classifiers in ancient Egyptian scripts, showing how they encode the world from two complementary perspectives: universal cognitive tendencies of classification along with Egyptian society's categorization of the world. Our central hypothesis is that each graphemic classifier in the Egyptian writing system heads a conceptual category. The assemblage of words classified by a particular classifier presents us with a dynamic map of an emic category in the mind of a culture. Classifiers in the Egyptian script allow us to trace central and marginal members of conceptual categories, spot interrelations and overlaps between categories, observe diachronic developments and changes, and discover incompatibility of categories. The number of classifier occurrences in complex script systems amounts to millions (i.e., big data).
KW - ancient Egyptian
KW - categorization
KW - Graphemic classifiers
KW - network maps
KW - Sinuhe
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189379990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/25138502241226983
DO - 10.1177/25138502241226983
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AN - SCOPUS:85189379990
SN - 2513-8510
VL - 8
SP - 34
EP - 58
JO - Journal of Chinese Writing Systems
JF - Journal of Chinese Writing Systems
IS - 1
ER -