For decades, epigraphers attempting to decipher the Indus Valley script faced a major hurdle: the brevity of the surviving inscriptions made standard statistical analysis of sign frequencies unreliable. To address this limitation, computational linguist Rajesh Rao and his team proposed using Markov models to analyze the sequential patterns of the signs rather than their individual frequencies. By calculating the conditional entropy of these sequences, the researchers could compare the script’s structural patterns to those of known spoken languages and non-linguistic systems. This innovative approach successfully demonstrated that the Indus script exhibits a level of syntactic order characteristic of natural human speech, providing a new pathway for decipherment.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
- It identifies a specific challenge in analyzing historical inscriptions, introduces a new methodological approach designed to overcome this challenge, explains how that approach was implemented, and summarizes the resulting finding.Answer
- BIt presents a long-standing debate between two historical theories, describes a computational study that supports one of these theories, and argues that further research is needed to resolve the controversy.
- CIt details a statistical tool used to analyze linguistic signs, contrasts this tool with traditional methods, and concludes that ancient scripts are structurally identical to modern spoken languages.
- DIt describes an archaeological discovery of ancient artifacts, explains how researchers determined the age of those artifacts, and evaluates the historical significance of the discovery.