The iClassifier Lab studies how different cultures, past and present, organize knowledge about the world. Our sources are classifier systems that appear in writing (in which case they are unpronounced) or in oral languages around the world.
Classifiers, which arrange the lexicon into various emic categories, have never been scrutinized systematically as a source for the study of knowledge organization.
iClassifier is a digital research platform designed to analyze classifier systems in detail. Through a data-mining process we undertake relational pattern recognition with the aim of identifying governing
rules as well as of documenting each language studied.
The iClassifier Lab is expected to contribute significantly to a greater understanding of classification processes and knowledge maps in each culture’s “mind.” We hope, on the one hand, to be able to point to cognitive universal patterns that are shared by all cultures and on the other hand, to identify culture-specific patterns in each case study.
Our research addresses the following topics:
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Identifying the category that each classifier heads and defining its structure – the central members and the fuzzy-edge members in each category.
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Getting closer to emic lexical meanings by defining the range of categories to which a lexical item is assigned.
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Studying multiple classification of a single host, and identifying compatibility patterns and classifier-order patterns.
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Assessing classifier centrality in culture – classifiers that head large categories versus those that head small ones.
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Metadata searches – studying classifier assignment by script, time, geography and other variables annotated for each token in the iClassifier database.
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Frequency, notwithstanding category size; i.e. identifying the most frequent classifiers.
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Researching the longue durée – how do classifier categories emerge and how do they decline?
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“Classifying the Other” - analysis of the classification of loanwords – how productive is a classifier system?
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Can classifier assignment be arbitrary? What is the relation of classifiers to gender assignment in the Egyptian lexicon?
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Identifying the distribution patterns of lexical classification and of pragmatic usage of classifiers.
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Studying verb classification, and identifying the semantic relations and comparing them to the argument structure of the studied language.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF SEMITIC LOANWORDS IN THE EGYPTIAN SCRIPT IN NEW KINGDOM EGYPT
Research project funded by ISF (Israeli Science Foundation), 2017-2020, PI Prof. Orly Goldwasser
Loanwords originating in Semitic languages reflect the transfer of technological innovations, social concepts and religious beliefs
into the Egyptian language. The Egyptian script records those words with an additional emic Egyptian layer of information, their classifiers. The classifiers of Semitic loanwords in Egyptian have never been studied systematically.
video.mp4
Classifiers are hieroglyphs that play a special role in the Egyptian writing system. They appear at the end of almost every written word, but they are unpronounced. They are semograms, as they mostly carry semantic information alone. The Egyptian classifiers constitute a linguistically dynamic and highly developed system. They may follow almost every lexical category — nouns (including compounds), verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adpositions, and pronouns. The relations between a classifier and its host are never arbitrary. In many cases, the classifiers add important semantic information about the host-word, assigning it to various Egyptian semantic categories represented pictorially by the classifier. For example, the Egyptian compound noun ḥryw-šꜥ 
"the ones who are on sand," features the classifiers 
[sand], 
[foreign] and 
[people]. These classifiers "silently" deliver rich semantic data from a uniquely Egyptian perception = sand + foreignness + people. This word indeed usually refers to non-Egyptian desert nomads. The classifier represents a throw-stick— a stereotypically non-Egyptian weapon — and is widely used to mark the semantic category of [FOREIGN].
Like all other indigenous Egyptian words, almost all loanwords written in Egyptian texts exhibit classifiers, and these are priceless nuggets of emic ancient information. One such example is the hieroglyphic writing of the Canaanite god, Baʿal 
. Remarkably, the Egyptians assigned to Baʿal, in most occurrences, the "silent" classifier that signified their own god, Seth . This constitutes exceptional evidence of a Canaanite–Egyptian syncretism that was deeply rooted in the Egyptian mind. Our project stands at the intersection of semantics, language contact, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and cultural interference studies. It will surely uncover invaluable new information on the attitudes of ancient Egyptians to the language and culture of the Canaanite "Other."
A NEW TOOL FOR CLASSIFIER ANALYSIS
In the framework of “Classifying the Other,” a new list of Semitic loanwords in Egyptian is created together with a digital platform for the analysis of classifiers. All lemmata and tokens are richly annotated so to create a context sensitive study of classification. For that task we create a tool in which each classifier is recorded and analysed, and every context dependent variable is noted.
Part of speech (POS), syntax and classification-type and classification-level together with full metadata of the text are recorded. iClassifier offers a digital environment for systematic studies of classifier systems.
