Re: intrinsic advantage of Latin alphabet over bopomofo (for Chinese)??

"Jens" == Jens S Larsen <jens_s_larsen@xxxxxxxx> writes:

Jens> LEE Sau Dan:
>> >>>>> "Jens" == Jens S Larsen <jens_s_larsen@xxxxxxxx> writes:
>>
Jens> You often can't interpret it unambiguously. Language is one
Jens> set of rules that is very prone to ambiguities, which is why
Jens> pictograms are often used in traffic signs: The code as well
Jens> as the messages are so simple that by-passing language can
Jens> be practical and eliminate any relevant ambiguities.
>> How do those sign tell me which lanes of Highway 101 are
>> "south bound" and which are "north bound"?

Jens> Over here we put an "s" and an "n" after the number.

So, "S" is a pictograph, because it's used on road signs? "N" is an
ideograph? How "international" is that?


>> How does it show me how far away I am from the exit of
>> "Mountview"?

Jens> Both the distance and the exit are shown by numbers.

How do they show the exit's destination? A pictograph? How
"international" is that?



Jens> No, all proper names are in orthography, of course.

In which orthography? Do they show the name of San Francisco in
Chinese on the exit signs? (Don't you have Chinese on your voting
ballots in California?)


Jens> That can be impractical at times, as when you want to go to
Jens> Liege, and all you can find is signs pointing to Luik.

When I was traveling to Leuven by local trains and had to make a
change in Liege, I couldn't find the name of my destination on the
train schedules in the station. I needed to check which platform my
train will arrive at. I could only find a destination called
"Louvain", and I have to pray that Louvain is the French name if
Leuven. (I didn't know the French name of this city before that
moment!)


So, which orthography? How "international" are the signs? Are there
really "International Highway Signs"?

It's just a set of conventions, and every country has to localize the
details to suit their own needs. There are no universal set of road
signs. What is universal is just a set of basic principles (e.g.
trianglar signs indicate warnings). The octagon sign means stop, but
is localized with a word for "stop" on it, and possibly with other
conditions (e.g. "bus only", or "except motorcycles") written in words
in the local language beside that sign. Can you really use these
signs without knowing any tiny bit of the local language?


--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
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