# Symbolic Representation **Domain:** Cognition / Language / Computation / Art **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[Symbolic AI]], [[Visual Grammar]], [[Language]], [[Ontology]] --- ## Definition **Symbolic representation** is the use of a sign, token, diagram, word or formal structure to stand for something in a way that permits interpretation or operation. The relationship may be conventional, structural, analogical or context-dependent. ## Corpus Function Symbolic representation links [[Pedagogical Sketchbook|visual pedagogy]], [[Language]], [[Ontology]] and [[Symbolic AI]]. It also defines a recurring evidence boundary: manipulating a representation of a thing is not automatically the same as possessing the thing’s meaning, experience or rights. ## Key Insight **A symbol becomes operational through a system of relations and interpreters, not through shape alone.** ## Relationships - **Field:** [[wiki/Semiotics|Semiotics]] · [[wiki/Language|Language]]. - **Structured forms:** [[wiki/Knowledge Representation|Knowledge Representation]] · [[wiki/Symbolic AI|Symbolic AI]]. - **Ontological question:** [[wiki/Ontology|Ontology]]. - **Broadcast source:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream]] compares symbolic memory to a programmer's parse trees and lexicons. - **Corpus project:** [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]], Bryant McGill's symbolic language engine, built from 1994 into the mid-2000s, with its phonological engine, sound indexes, and lexical knowledge graph. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Memory and thought are built largely from symbols. Much of what people remember is stored as language and image, organized like a branching tree of linked concepts, much as a programmer's parse tree organizes code. Changing the symbols changes how experience is filed and recalled.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream (Jun 2016)* [[reminders/Memory/Memory Is Built From Symbols Like a Parse Tree by Bryant McGill|Memory Is Built From Symbols Like a Parse Tree by Bryant McGill]]