Locked in Syndrome and Communication

It seems there would be something that could be done using pinyin as initials finals and tone as only certain combinations of finals can combine with certain initials. Additionally not all tones are available for all combinations of initial and final so all of that should narrow down the options considerably.

Of course won't help too much in the confusing cases i.e. pronouns etc! Hopefully context would help there but might need some creative writing to ensure correct understanding. That said this must go for spoken chinese as well so it may not be as hard as I feel it would be from my current skill level :-)

I guess you could use a pinyin chart. Start with choosing the initial, then from a o e i u v, then the full final, and finally tone if it hasn't yet become clear. You could modify the chart to list the initials in order of frequency, but I think it would be simpler to keep the finals in order. I would also consider adding the tones at the end of the complete word rather than character. So 我们 would become women35 rather than wo3men5 because, like this example, you really only need wom to understand. I am sure there is a lot of guessing involved as well. If I were in the therapist's position in this example I would likely skip to o after w was indicated, then try the space marker then the m. If I was wrong anywhere along the line then I'd go back and work the chart methodically. It might even be easier than english. If the person who is locked in doesn't speak mandarin, they could use the input method where you choose the modified stroke... I forget what it is called. In either case, I might also have characters like 了and 的 on the chart along with the punctuation because in this scenario I am a native speaker and would be able to anticipate their inclusion.

I think Chinese people would be more comfortable identifying the character through number of strokes, like a dictionary or map. I think only children would prefer pinyin.

thanks orangina for both sharing some interesting thoughts on this and for reviving a thread I'd forgotten about. Interesting thought about having the tones at the end. I suppose the trick could be differentiating between the end of character and the end of the word in a multi-character[ could be two but could be more] word..but I guess it could work with a double and triple blink system.

I think working out frequency of initials and finals would be better and making a special pinyin chart adapted to the purpose would be better so as to increase efficiency and decrease fatigue/frustration.

Yes, in the movie I talked about the therapist did a fair bit of prediction...obviously a good idea.

Uncertain whether or not high frequency characters would be helpful or not as they are probably going to be the one's easiest to predict and may just make the list to go through longer.

I'm sure you're right. Personally I'd rather use orangina's system as I don't know the characters well enough in my head, but for a native that's a different kettle of fish.

This kind of made me think a bit. What kind of input system would the Chinese have used if they developed the computer first? They might use an alphanumeric keyboard for the same reason most people use Microsoft. Not because it is the best system, but because it is dominant.