@inproceedings{hermalin-2023-mutual,
    title = "A Mutual Information-based Approach to Quantifying Logography in {J}apanese and {S}umerian",
    author = "Hermalin, Noah",
    editor = "Gorman, Kyle  and
      Sproat, Richard  and
      Roark, Brian",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the Workshop on Computation and Written Language (CAWL 2023)",
    month = jul,
    year = "2023",
    address = "Toronto, Canada",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2023.cawl-1.12",
    doi = "10.18653/v1/2023.cawl-1.12",
    pages = "105--110",
    abstract = "Writing systems have traditionally been classified by whether they prioritize encoding phonological information (phonographic) versus morphological or semantic information (logographic). Recent work has broached the question of how membership in these categories can be quantified. We aim to contribute to this line of research by treating a definition of logography which directly incorporates morphological identity. Our methods compare mutual information between graphic forms and phonological forms and between graphic forms and morphological identity. We report on preliminary results here for two case studies, written Sumerian and written Japanese. The results suggest that our methods present a promising means of classifying the degree to which a writing system is logographic or phonographic.",
}

Writing systems have traditionally been classified by whether they prioritize encoding phonological information (phonographic) versus morphological or semantic information (logographic). Recent work has broached the question of how membership in these categories can be quantified. We aim to contribute to this line of research by treating a definition of logography which directly incorporates morphological identity. Our methods compare mutual information between graphic forms and phonological forms and between graphic forms and morphological identity. We report on preliminary results here for two case studies, written Sumerian and written Japanese. The results suggest that our methods present a promising means of classifying the degree to which a writing system is logographic or phonographic.
Hermalin, Noah
A Mutual Information-based Approach to Quantifying Logography in Japanese and Sumerian