意義的生成初探 -- 以江味農《金剛經講義》為例=A Preliminary Study on the Processing of Meanings of Text, Using "A Note of the Diamond Sutra" by Jiang Wei Nong as an Illustrating Example.
多義=ambiguity; 意義的生成=derivation of meaning; 意義的理解=understanding of meaning; 情境=context; 意義單位=unit of meaning; 知識本體=ontology; 內容標誌=content markup; 人機共構系統=human-machine system
This thesis is a study in Humanity Informatics, a discipline considering humankind and the influence of informatics thereupon from the perspective of human civilization in its entirety. Research in this field identifies central issues in the humanities, understands what are needed, and proposes new methodologies for computers to process meanings. In this way, an abundance of cultural assets - as well as how they have been understood and elaborated by humanities scholars through the ages - can be built in computers and formed into a systematic ontology, bringing human culture to another horizon. The current study first surveys various theories of “meaning and understanding,” which constitutes one of the most intriguing topics in the humanities, and then explores how the computer processes meanings. Adopting a qualitative approach, this research attempts to identify the contextual forms from which meanings can be derived, with the author’s own understanding of “A Note of the Diamond Sutra” as an illustrating example. These contextual forms are then used to analyze the derivation of meaning in general and to develop a meaning-processing system, which will provide humanities scholars with a new perspective on meanings of text. Below are the summaries of each chapter in this thesis. Chapter 1: Introduction. The first section in this chapter covers the background of and motivation for the research, while later sections describe the purpose, questions, scope, and methodology of the research. A flow chart of the research process is provided in the last section. Chapter 2: Literature review. This chapter (with Appendices I and II) reviews the literature on meaning and understanding from various disciplines, including Buddhism, bibliography, hermeneutics, semiotics, linguistics, and informatics. These discussions will form the theoretical framework of the current study. Chapter 3: The understanding of “A Note of the Diamond Sutra” and the contextual forms from which meanings can be derived. This chapter (with Appendices III-VII) applies the theories mentioned in Chapter 2 to the understanding of “A Note of the Diamond Sutra” and identifies four contextual forms from which meanings can be derived: *Kepan, which means ‘chapter division and outline of a Buddhist sutra’ *Terminology explanation, which involves classification and ambiguity *Cross-referencing within the same text, including cross-referencing between paragraphs that can each form a unit of meaning on its own and cross-referencing between sentences *Association, via the intercontextuality among different versions and translations of the same text, or via additional comprehension questions (with answers) designed to facilitate readers’ understanding Each contextual form has its respective content markup. Chapter 4:
