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The design of codes and formats for information storage must be guided by the requirements of the processes in which the stored information is to be used. In the case of medical data, a code must be designed to facilitate several different processes, including case management, administration, evaluation and research. Design of such a system can be facilitated by an examination of the theory, in which knowledge is represented by a formal model consisting of nodes and arcs connecting the nodes. Arcs are of five types: paradigmatic, syntagmatic, discursive, attitudinal and metalingual. Metalingual arcs, which allow for shifts in level of abstraction, provide the only natural means of passage among the several languages of medicine. The technical problems raised by these shifts have been neglected in the philosophy of science, in linguistics and in information retrieval. Any cognitive network needs to record paradigmatic, syntagmatic, discursive and metalingual arcs; attitudinal arcs are also sometimes needed. Medical record files must be able to keep all types of linkages to provide accurate histories, and medical authority files need them to record the structure of the science. The SNOMed system provides some, but not all, of these linkages. (Author/SL)

This paper considers Spanish adjectives and the possibility of converting some adjectives into adverbs, keeping the same general significance of a sentence. The conversion of an adjective into an adverb under these circumstances can be accomplished through a transformation which can be applied to a particular logical-semantic structure. The author establishes the formula for such a structure and the formula for the appropriate transformation. Particular types of adjectives and their potential convertibility into adverbs are discussed. (VM)

The purpose of this study was to (1) compare the semantic relationships among common nouns obtained via two different measurement procedures and (2) determine if the use of these relationships to classify the various words results in differential degrees of learning when the stimuli are cast in terms of the paired-associate learning paradigm. Three sample groups of 120, 60, and 320 consisted of volunteer undergraduate students. Results of the analyses showed that (1) Although the number of salient, semantic dimensions derived when scaling the stimuli via the semantic differential and multidimensional scaling procedures were basically the same, the specific interrelationships exhibited among the stimuli under the two procedures were quite different; and (2) When the nouns were used in a paired-associate learning task which incorporated both sets of relationships, significantly different levels of learning were observed. These results suggest that in learning situations such as this, the use of a multidimensional scaling algorithm may represent a more efficient procedure than the semantic differential for specifying the semantic interrelationships among small sets of verbal stimuli. (Author/JF)

This document describes a format for analyzing the information content of sentences and the language patterns that accompany particular information content. The author writes in terms of information structures, each information structure having a corresponding linguistic structure composed of distinctive features. The information structure of a given sentence and its corresponding linguistic structure are frequently conditioned by context, particularly the preceding sentence. The paper illustrates the determination of 12 different information structure types, to which correspond a total of 16 different linguistic structure types. Most of the examples are in German. (VM)

The author presents a summary of selected theoretical concepts and empirical evidence from the field of psychology, relating to the meaning of the term "meaning." He first summarizes experimental techniques for the investigation of meaning in terms of six approaches: conditioning methods, word association methods, word association/verbal learning methods, conditioning/word association methods, scaling methods, and conditioning with semantic differential methods. The author discusses in detail the theories and views developed by Arthur W. Staats, Charles E. Osgood, James Deese, and Benjamin Lee Whorf. It is the author's purpose to provide a basic foundation for the improved understanding of meaning which, in turn, may facilitate communication among individuals in this world of complexities. (RN)

This paper explains the main concepts of communicative grammar and provides a detailed view of how communicative grammar analyses language at various levels. Language is discussed in terms of communication; the central elements in the analysis are those that carry information. Communicative grammar seeks to describe the process of the linguistic formulation of a thought. Details for analysis are provided here along with examples. Implications for theoretical, applied, and computational linguistics, language instruction, and translation are noted. A bibliography is included. (VM)

Communication theories provide some assistance to these involved with interpretive reading, but the performance of literature calls for its own theory based on meaning and the unique qualities of interpretive skills. Theories of meaning involve both word meaning, based on the generalized processes of shared language experiences, and a personalized meaning, based on individual, differentiated experiences of readers and audience members. Meaning includes both intellectual and emotional responses to a piece of literature. A theory based on meaning can establish other theories unique both to the experience and performance of literature, including explanations of the general principles of advanced interpretive reading. This suggests analytical studies on the phenomenon of interpretation as related to both literary subjects and their development in performance. Empirical research could center on distinguishing between naturally acquired skills and the learned components of interpretive techniques. (RN)

Current linguistic theory rigidly compartmentalizes the "cognitive," linguistic aspects of human communication and the presumed "emotive," paralinguistic elements that occur in both human and nonhuman communication. The segmental phonetic units of human speech, according to this view, are supposed to convey linguistically relevant information, e.g., the vowel distinction that differentiates the English words "bit" and "bet." Emotive, paralinguistic qualities are supposedly transmitted only by means of prosodic modifications like fundmental frequency, amplitude, and tempo as well gestures and facial expressions. Animals, according to this view, make use only of these "paralinguistic" parameters. This distinction is false. The same phonetic feature space is used for both paralinguistic and linguistic communication, and the semantic boundary line between these two aspects of human communication is not sharp. The foundations of human language can be seen in the paralinguistic aspects of human communication and in the vocal and gestural aspects of the communications of other animals. (Author)

This paper argues that traditional techniques of content analysis which have been applied to classroom verbal interaction studies fail to account for certain types of implicit information, and presents a technique, called "reconstruction," that provides for the inclusion of such information in a content analysis. It is argued that if identical messages (paraphrases) can contain varying amounts of overt information then the case for implicit information and thus reconstruction is supported. In other words, if individuals who interpret messages must supply information which is not overtly available, then this implicit information must be included to obtain frequency counts which accurately reflect the semantic preoccupations of the verbal interaction. The paper first discusses the existence of implicit information in a communicative event and a technique of reconstruction for discovering that information. The second part presents data to show that reconstruction makes a difference, and in particular that black and white classrooms differ in the degree to which they exhibit implicit information in their discourse. These differences are felt to be substantive. It is also felt that, without such reconstruction, content analyses of classroom discourse generate distorted views of the concerns of participants. See also AL 002 750 and AL 002 752-753. (Author/FWB)

This annotated bibliography lists approximately 100 books, reports, Rand memoranda, and papers, written between 1961 and 1971, in the fields of linguistic theory, language research, computational linguistics, and formal linguistics. Many documents involve the use of computers in problems of language analysis; many concern the analysis of Russian. Several works on machine translation are also listed. (VM)

An informal introduction to the study of communication deals with the major topics in the field. It presents basic theories of communication and language, reviews how language takes on meaning, explains the stimulus-response and Piaget theories of learning, and presents major theories dealing with communications and society. These theories include cognitive dissonance, the two-step flow, and McLuhan's ideas. (JK)

This discussion of verbal communication seeks to bring a new "unity" and order into the study of linguistics, to make linguistics truly an interdisciplinary science, and to communicate more effectively with the outside world, peopled by those who do not speak linguistic jargon. The particular linguistic problem here is an exploratory psycholinguistic study of correlations between verbal and conceptual structures in language, consisting of an investigation of the verbal cues of organizational information and the corresponding operations of sequential structure utilized in the encoding-decoding process. The basic assumptions underlying the study are that language can profitably be examined with respect to its characteristics as a unified form of behavior and that a psycholinguistic interpretation of the notion of grammar is needed to account for transformation between the structures of content and of expression. The two-part discussion covers hypothetical, analytic, and synthetic considerations. (Author/VM)

This book, uniting the material from numerous lectures on communication theory, is designed to serve as the introduction to a series entitled "Studies in Communication," which will appear during the next few years. It is not intended for the expert in each of the many fields related to human communication, but, rather, it is designed for the general reader interested in the field. The book provides background information, historical data, definitions, concepts, and terms of reference in the area of human communication beginning with a discussion of the social aspects and the historical evolution of theory and of language analysis, including written and spoken language as well as meaning. The physical phenomena of signals, especially speech, are considered, as is the statistical and mathematical study of the information content of signals. The logic of communication is then discussed, including theories of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. A discussion of human information intake, cognition, and recognition ends the book. A list of references is included. (VM)

This book contains the edited papers from the eleventh International Conference on General Semantics, titled "A Search for Relevance." The conference questioned, as a central theme, the relevance of general semantics in a world of wars and human misery. Reacting to a fundamental Korzybski-ian principle that man's view of reality is distorted by the screen of language interposed between man and his world, the first group of essays discusses the philosophical formulations underlying work in semantics. Another group of essays takes up various applications of semantics studies, such as problems in learning disabilities, the use of law language, and the teaching of electrical principles. Unusual applications of general semantics in areas such as human communication, psychology, and business management compose a third section of the book. (CH)

The author has collected in this volume his papers and talks over the past 20 years on the subject of information theory. He identifies the underlying thread of his work--the idea that there is a valid analogy between Heisenberg's "Principle of Uncertainty" and certain aspects of information theory. Three of his papers then provide introductory information; the remaining nine deal with symbols, communication, meaning, questions and commands, understanding, information generators, and indeterminacy. At the end of each paper the author provides a postscript, commenting on the paper from the viewpoint of present knowledge. He provides in an appendix an explanatory survey of the terminology of information theory and a paper on structural information content and optical resolution. A list of references and a subject index are also provided. (JY)

One theory of linguistic information processing asserts that there is a preliminary incomplete analysis of linguistic information which lets people judge how difficult the information will be to process completely. The present study investigates the reliability and validity of such judgments of comprehensibility and discusses some of their characteristics. (FWB)

Adaptation of an address given on March 29, 1971 at the opening of the Twenty-fourth Annual Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado. (Editor)

Revised version of paper presented at the Internationale Hochschulferienkurse, Leipzig, East Germany, 1970. (WB)

Article describes a number of steps when dealing with the general semantics of international/intercultural communication. (Author)

Part 1 appeared in v1 n4 of Linguistik und Didaktik''. (WB)

Discussion of "Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics" by John Lyons. (DD)

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES THE THEORY THAT CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MESSAGES IS A CONTRAL TOPIC IN ALL SCIENCES DEALING WITH MAN. CONTENT ANALYSIS IS THE DETERMINATION OF CHARACTERISTICS OF A SOURCE FROM THE NATURAL LANGUAGE UTTERANCES IT EMITS. ASSIGNING PROPERTIES TO WORDS AND THEN COUNTING THE APPEARANCES OF THE PROPERTIES IS INSUFFICIENT--THE CONTENT OF A MESSAGE SHOULD BE ANALYZED IN TERMS OF WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO WHAT THE SENDER AND THE RECEIVER ALREADY KNOW. THE CONTRIBUTION OF LINGUISTICS IS TO EXPLICATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OVERT EXPRESSION AND CONTENT. THE REMARKABLY COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACOUSTIC SIGNALS AND CONTENT ARE SIMPLIFIED BY SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS, PREFERABLY THROUGH THE USE OF COMPUTERS. MUCH ABOUT LANGUAGE CANNOT BE EXPLAINED WITHOUT GRAND THEORY, AND THE UNEXPLAINED PART IS WHAT IS NEEDED FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS. WHILE LINGUISTICS CAN FURNISH A PARTIAL MODEL OF THE COMMUNICATOR, MODELS OF COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF ATTITUDE FORMATION AND CHANGE ARE ALSO NEEDED. SERIOUS WORK ON CONTENT ANALYSIS COULD ALTER THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES IN FUNDAMENTAL WAYS. THIS DOCUMENT (RAND PAPER P-3714) IS AVAILABLE FOR $1.00 (CHECK OR MONEY ORDER) FROM THE REPORTS DEPARTMENT, THE RAND CORPORATION, 1700 MAIN STREET, SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA 90406. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS SHOULD ADD FIVE PERCENT SALES TAX. (AUTHOR/JD)