We believe that a “useful”, tactile symbol-set must have the following characteristics:<\/p>\n
First, why talk about “conceptual language” and not a “set of core words”?\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a bit of a red herring.\u00a0 We assume that the set of core words have been selected from a larger lexicon for a particular language.\u00a0 So all rules governing the language should also govern the set of core words.\u00a0 Of course, depending on the selected set, the underlying rules may not be obvious or may even appear contradictory.<\/p>\n
This is also a red herring because, the individual using these core words are likely not using the written or spoken version of the words.\u00a0 Tactile symbols represent a transformation of these words from their spoken or written form into a tactile form.\u00a0 The tactile form must have a consistent set of rules governing their structure and form if one is to genuinely develop, even rudimentary, language skills through their use.<\/p>\n
For blind and\/or deaf individuals, who lack the knowledge\/support of a written or spoken language, the tactile symbols themselves must embody the rules of a language.\u00a0 A set of core tactile symbols is unlikely to have a clear set of associated rules unless the symbols were derived from a rules-based language.<\/p>\n
A language based on rules will have internal consistency.\u00a0 With internal consistency, learning one part of the language will facilitate learning another part of the language.\u00a0 Without internal consistency, learning a language is an exercise in endless memorization.\u00a0 You can’t establish rules halfway through the development of a language.\u00a0 The rules must be specified early-on.\u00a0 If a set of symbols are first generated simply to be unique from each other and to be mildly connected to their referent, it’s impossible to retrofit a set of rules without making significant modifications to the base of symbols.<\/p>\n
Why the emphasis on “conceptual”?<\/p>\n
Communication is all about conveying concepts from one person to another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Written and spoken words (and their encodings like Braille) have evolved over centuries and carry all the warts and struggles of that evolution – just consider issues like pronunciation rules and homonyms.\u00a0 A tremendous amount of decoding is required to go from a pronunciation like “br\u0101k” to the concept of “separate or cause to separate into pieces”.\u00a0 Is that person saying “break” or “brake”?\u00a0 What’s the context?\u00a0 Is it followed by the word “time”?\u00a0 Is the speaker speaking in English or some other language or have an accent?\u00a0 Maybe they’re Scottish and they were talking about a “brick”…<\/p>\n
Blissymbols cut through all that confusion and “speak” directly in concepts.<\/p>\n
Blissymbolics was originally conceived of as a complete language by Charles Bliss.\u00a0 His goal was to create an alternative to the spoken languages of the day.\u00a0 A language that could be used by anyone, anywhere in the world.\u00a0 A language that could not be used to deceive others.\u00a0 To achieve this goal, Bliss had to define rules for his language before he could design a representation for the first concept.<\/p>\n
Early on, Bliss was the sole developer of his language and therefore could ensure that each new element adhered to the rules he had established and was consistent with the elements that came before.\u00a0 At the same time, Blissymbolics are naturally generative.\u00a0 Many Bliss concepts are created by superimposing or concatenating more primitive concepts.\u00a0 Once Blissymbolics became popular, there was a natural desire, by users of the language, to do the same thing.\u00a0 But that can produce a chaotic language.\u00a0 To control the chaos, a standards body is needed to curate, new candidate words\/concepts.\u00a0 Blissymbolics Communication International<\/a> serves as this standards body.<\/p>\n Blissymbols were conceived of to be purely conceptual.\u00a0 The Blissymbol used by a western European for the concept “dog” is the same one used in east Asia.<\/p>\n All graphics are comprised of just a few straight lines and curves of different sizes.<\/p>\n The Bliss Tactile Symbol designer lets you add features like Braille and engraved text when, and if, you need it<\/p>\n Blissymbolics is generative so the tactile symbols must also be generative.\u00a0 Start with an official Bliss word or build your own concepts by combining Bliss words in new ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4143,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[],"class_list":["post-5089","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tIndependent of culture<\/h1>\n
Simple designs<\/h1>\n
Flexible designs<\/h1>\n
Extensible<\/h1>\n