Symbol

A symbol is a Visible Entity that is intended to act as a Referencer and can be distinguished from other symbols.

• AKA: Letter, Character, Indivisible Symbol.
• Context:
  • It can be:
    • a Free Symbol.
    • a Class Member of a Category, such as: an Alphabet or a Formal Grammar Terminal Set.
  • It can reference an Abstract Symbol.
• Example(s):
  • a Linguistic Symbol, such as Graphemes: "A", "a", “b”, "1", "ñ", "æ", "ك", "אַ", and "金"
  • a Mathematical Symbol, such as: ⊂, ⊄, ⊆, and π.
  • an Item Tag.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Identifier, e.g. a Name.
  • a Complex Referencer composed of several symbols such as a Name.
  • an Abstract Entity, such as a Sample Space or an Algorithm.
  • a Data Value.
• See: Symbol System, Random Experiment Symbol.

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References

2009

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=symbol
  • S: (n) symbol (an arbitrary sign (written or printed) that has acquired a conventional significance)
  • S: (n) symbol, symbolization, symbolisation, symbolic representation (something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible) "the eagle is a symbol of the United States"
• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/symbol
  • Noun
    • 1. A character or glyph representing an idea, concept or object.
      • $ is the symbol for dollars in the US and some other countries.
      • is the hash symbol.
    • 2. Any object, typically material, which is meant to represent another (usually abstract) even if there is no meaningful relationship.
      • The dollar symbol has no relationship to the concept of currency or any related idea.
    • 3. (linguistics) A type of noun whereby the form refers to the same entity independently of the context; a symbol arbitrarily denotes a referent. See also icon and index.
    • 4. A summary of a dogmatic statement of faith.
      • The Apostles, Nicene Creed and the confessional books of Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism are considered symbols.

2007

• (Kakkonen, 2007) ⇒ Tuomo Kakkonen. (2007). “Framework and Resources for Natural Language Evaluation." Academic Dissertation. University of Joensuu.
  • Definition 3-1. Symbol, terminal and alphabet.
    • A symbol is a distinguishable character, such as “a”, “b” or “c”.
    • Any permissible sequence of symbols is called a terminal (also referred to as a word).
    • A finite, nonempty set ∑ of terminals is called an alphabet.

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