Recently Gartner, IBM and many others have predicted that 2 technologies would drive the IT field at least for the...
Recently Gartner, IBM and many others have predicted that 2 technologies would drive the IT field at least for the next 5-10 timeframe. If one wants to be or continue to be in IT field or connected to this field then one of 2 technologies need to be understood if possible studied and contributed to - they are (1) Bigdata and (2) Natural Language. 80% all digital data available in the world has been generated in the past few years. (this is logical as only in the past few years there is a widespread usage of computers across various purposes). The amount of Data that's being available to query and make meanings is enormous - ordinary database or computer can't handly such huge amount of data - thus Grid computing, Cloud computing is becoming the norm and many new software tools are coming up to handle such large volumes of data. Next is Natural Language - today queries towards this data is not structured or in machine language but in human language or Natural Language (such as How much percentage Indians who were living in the US west coast in age group between 30-35 are supporting Anti-corruption movements in India). Such a natural language query is difficult to, first understand for computer as the English language Syntax and Semantics are most complex. This is where SANSKRIT comes into play as a structured language and one needs to study Sanskrit Vyakarana and Shaabda Bodha (shaabda means Artha or meaning /word sense) - however Shaabda has come from Shabda (sound). In other words Veda can be constituted for Shabda and Shastra can be for Artha. Root of all possible human knowledge is language and language is based on sounds and Vedas contain the primordial sounds - thus this is onemore vyavaharika prayojanam (wordly purpose) for studying Veda.
wow.... im impressed .... but how can Sanskrit do the job. You mean to say Sanskrit is easier than english or any other language. If yes then in which way?
ReplyDeletehm, so has there been any studies going on in India for this?
ReplyDeleteenglish is adding hundreds of news words each year, sanskrit is still in the text books only, its rarely used as communication medium, used by a fraction of people
ReplyDeletedo you mean that English is more evolved than Sanskrit then, Bhagat singh ?
ReplyDeleteWhy I think Sanskrit will be suited for normal language processing is: it is unlike English which borrows/creates new words for unknown terms. In that way definitely Sanskrit is much suited for the mentioned purpose.
okay if thats the case, how are the new things such as computers be called with sanskrit?
ReplyDeleteIn Linguistics and most importantly computational linguistics the following are essential for scientific analysis (computer will analyze) of the language - which consists of sentenses - and sentenses have meanings - how without ambiguity meaning is conveyed is important because computers don't have intelligence - it goes based on a particular structure and tries to match a particular meaning. Say sentense like -
ReplyDeletea- The committee chair chairs the meetings where the chair is elected as the chair for onemore chairterm.
b- All committees' chairs chair their meetings to elect the chair and the past chair is elected as the new chair for the next chairterm.
Now we can easily understand the meanings but computer can't understand - here is where the language's ambiguities with respect to word meanings and words' declensions, usage, meanings in a phrase and within a sentense all matter a lot. English is the most complex langague - it takes even for a native speaker 8-10 years to achieve proficiency. It takes just 2 years to achieve proficiency in Sanskrit.
In addition, the written form of English is again non-phonetic. Due to many borrowed words - spellings and pronunciations are again differ and add complexity.
In general Language means - collection of sentenses; A sentenses means - collection of meaningfully associated words with Subject, Object and Verb etc. ; The word should have clear and easily understandable verbal and nominal declensions if not confusion starts. In the above example the word "Chair" is both verb and noun - this gives enormous confusion to computer.
Any way the 5 most important things of Linguistics are given below
(1) Phonetics and Phonology —knowledge about linguistic sounds - Shiksha shastra - we have over 40 Shiksaas for each shaaka of veda but for language Paniniya shiksha is more suitable
(2) Morphology —knowledge of the meaningful components of words - pada vyutpatti in Sanskrit - 4 vrittis are there for this Krit, Taddhita, Samasa and Sannaadyanta - the method for generating words is
explained step-by-step in Ashtadyayi like a mathematical equation.
(3) Syntax —knowledge of the structural relationships between words - declensions of nominal forms /stems - In Sanskrit Vibhakti play this role - we have very tight rule thus there is no ambiguity. Also Sanskrit is a language without prepositions thus a major complexity is removed - this is also explained step-by-step in Ashtadyayi like a mathematical equation.
(4) Semantics —knowledge of meaning of words in a sentense - this is one discussed in detail in Sanskrit vyakarana called as "Kaarakam" - Many ways of sentense meanings and their analysis scientific basis are available in Sanskrit
(5) Pragmatics — knowledge of the relationship of meaning with respect to the context - this is the most complex as meanings change based on context and many other factors - In Sanskrit there is a wonderful Vyakarana treatise available for this called "Vakyapadiyam" - pity is that many Indians don't know this. But German /French linguists study this in detail. All most all kinds of meaning analysis in the West - we can say that one way or the other inspired by "Vakyapadiyam" or "Mahabhashyam" - My Namaskaarams to Bhagavan Patanjali and Bhagavan Bhartruhari.
Sanskrit is a Devabhasa not because it is the oldest language - it is because it is very perfect in structure, morphology, semantics etc. - Only a good linguist understands that such a perfect language can't be created by Human beings which has not changed for 1000s of years - thus it is a Deva bhasha and not evolved from cavemen, etc.
In India, I belog to the 3rd generation or people who are into Sanskrit Computational Linguistics. In the first generation in 80s (late 80s) stalwards like Prof. Mahabala (IIT-M), Swami Shankarananda Bharati (Sringeri), Prof. NSR Tattacharya (RSVP), Prof. Rajiv Sangal (then IIT-K now IIIT-H), Prof. Vineet Chaitanya (IIT-K /IIIT-H), Prof. K.T.Pandurangi, Prof. Lakshmi Tattacharya (ASR), Prof. Ramakrishnamacharyalu (RSVP) and many others envisioned started. During the second generation (90s) many new people joined the first generation and started developing many tools - such as Prof. Amba kulkarnai (UofH), Prof. Shrinivasa Varakhedi (KSU), Prof. Dipak Bhattacharya (IIT-B), Prof. Girish Natha Jha (JNU) and many others are now active in developing tools and guiding students. Many tools are developed and many things are in place. In the third generation many aspiring students like me are eager to get into this field and share the vision and also some workload of elders who are tirelessly working all these years. I'm sure in a matter of 5-10 years we will have fool proof MT and many other AI systems using Sanskrit as the core engine in the Natural Language Processing areas
ReplyDeletewow, staggering information. but thats a lot of information for most commoners. unless there is a community/commoners working towards the goal, the progress will be snail-paced.
ReplyDeletewhen auto programing comes, manual programing will be a thing of the past
ReplyDelete