Principles of Information Systems
Session 03
Language and Communication
Language and Communication
Chapter 2
Overview
Learning objectives
1. Introduction
2. Types of language
3. How does language begin?
4. The symbolic aspects of language
5. Language and communication
6. Language and cultures
7. Language and thought
8. Summary
3
Learning objectives
• Explain how language shapes our description of the
world, and how different cultures use language to view
the world differently
• Distinguish between natural and artificial languages
• Explain how language acts as a mediator between
symbols and understandings
• Define semiotics, and describe the four semiotic levels
in informatics
• Define linguistics, and explain why it is significant for
informatics
4
Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• The activities of naming and symbolising we met in the
last chapter lead to the formation of different types of
language, that is, ways of talking about things
• Different cultures name and shape their views of the
world differently, and organise and express their
knowledge in specific language forms
• The concepts of language, culture and communication
are essential to an understanding of informatics.
5
Types of language
• As well as everyday natural language :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
-Musical languages
-Scientific languages
-Computer languages
-Sign languages,
-Pictorial languages
-Specialised jargon
-Codes of many different sorts
-Artificial languages such as Esperanto
-Private languages between people who are very close
-Languages used by apes or other animals
-Abstract representations in the minds of babies before they learn
their community’s language
…
6
Types of language
• Some languages are better for expressing certain types
of ideas than others, and each language has its own
community of users who understand what the
references and meanings are.
• Informatics also has its own ways of describing things
7
Why so many?
• Some possible answers:
-No language by itself is fully adequate for every purpose
-Different languages serve different purposes
-Languages are specialised for particular functions
-Languages allow groups to identify and differentiate from
others
-Languages admit ways of describing the world that others
don’t
8
Natural language
• Natural language is the type spoken or
written in everyday life by a community.
-Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, English…
• Nations and regions may have their own
languages, or their own dialect versions of a
major language
9
Natural language
• Natural language gives a basis for more specialised
subsets:
-Dialects, where a community adopts specific words or
different accents and pronunciation of the base language
-Idiolects, where a person has an individual pattern or usage
of words. When immediate associates learn an idiolect and
use it, it becomes an ecolect, and may catch on more widely.
-Jargon, where a community practicing in a shared area of
interest, such as mathematics, develop specialised words or
meanings for common words.
10
Foos yer
doos?
Aye pickin!
What are
these?
point Percy at
the porcelain
He birdied the
sixteenth which
made up for his
bogie on the second
and finished two
over par
(if you aren’t familiar with the examples – research them!)
11
Artificial languages
• Informatics often deals with artificial languages
• These are developed for particular purposes, in
specialised communities
-Maths, music, information technology
-In informatics there are “languages” for communicating
the results of a business analysis, for instructing
computers or web browsers to do something, for
describing data resources and many other specialised
applications.
• Like natural languages, artificial languages require
their users to share an understanding of the
conventional signs and what they mean in some
specific world
12
Recap
There are many types of languages,
both natural and artificial.
Each language has its own community
of users who understand the
references and meanings
13
How does language
begin?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• There is an ongoing debate on the origins of language. Here
is one common sense story.
• We are born into a community who already speak a common
language. Through imitation, trial and error we learn its
vocabulary, rules and application, and we learn the
associations between sounds and its written form. This is
natural language, and gives a background basis in
community understanding.
• In this story language is learned by individuals, but
essentially it was in place socially before any individual
learned it. We have been thrown into a world, and its
language is “found in nature”.
14
How does language begin?
• Another common sense story is like the process of
introducing any new idea into a community where it did not
exist before.
• At a very simple level an individual may assign a word or sign
to name or signify a perceived object or a conceived idea.
• That word may be defined or consistently used by the
individual, and by others in time becoming accepted by the
immediate community, forming part of its language.
• And the culture of that community will give it meaning in
relation to the other words and ideas of that culture. In time
the word may disappear through disuse, or change or extend
its meaning.
15
How does language begin?
• Three main processes apply:
-Symbolisation (the explicit representation of
perceptions)
-Communication (the social sharing of information via
language)
-Culture (the worldviews and belief systems that
sustain meaning)
• Each of these areas has been researched mainly within
psychology, sociology, linguistics, cultural studies and in
specialized areas of informatics.
16
Recap
There is debate on the origins of language.
An individual may ‘name’ a new item or
concept, which is then adopted more widely
and given meaning by the community
17
The symbolic aspects of
language
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• All languages are systems of signs and symbols, used
to represent and communicate the idea of something:
• Language mediates between symbolisation and
culturally understood meanings
18
Signs and symbols
• This fundamental concept underpins any system of
expressed meaning, whether in words, numbers,
computer “primitives”, pictures or other symbolisations.
• The study of language’s fundamental elements, or
signs, is known as semiotics.
• Semiotics provides a powerful set of theoretical
concepts applicable in informatics
-de Saussure, Pierce, Dewey
19
step
Hey look, a
squirrel!
The sign combines
the signifier and
the signified
20
Word or
signifier
Concept or
signified
Sign, signifier, signified
Sign – fundamental element of language,
combining the signifier
(or word) and the signified (or concept)
squirrel
Signifier – a component of a sign,
meaning the word that is used to refer
to a concept.
Signified – component of a sign,
meaning the concept that is
referred to
21
water
eau
voda
wasser
air
These words are all arbitrary symbolic associations, which their communities
somehow agreed and standardised upon
22
Semiotic levels in informatics
• Syntactic
-Concerns the form of symbols
• Semantic
-concerns the meaning of symbols
• Pragmatic
-concerns the usage of symbols
• Social
-concerns the understanding of the meaning of symbols
23
Syntactic
‘John kissed Mary’ =
‘Mary was kissed by John’
Social
John kissed Mary…
because she needed to know he
loved her
24
Semantic
‘John kissed Mary’
‘Mary kissed John’
Pragmatic
John kissed Mary…
to stop her crying
≠
Semiotics and informatics
• These four levels span from the basic forms at the
most primitive level, to the understanding at the
highest social level
• This is relevant for informatics practice:
• At the primitive (form) end are hard skills
-Formulation and specification; mathematical or formal in
nature.
• At the understanding end are soft skills
-Interpretation, felt meaning, political diplomacy in the face of
ambiguity, and people skills generally in ensuring intended
meanings are understood.
25
Recap
All languages are systems of signs and
symbols, used to represent and
communicate the idea of something.
The study of language’s fundamental
elements, or signs, is known as semiotics.
26
Linguistics
• Language is not just the words or symbols
themselves:
-the way they are put together structurally affects how they are
interpreted.
• Syntax and rules of grammar are important in
handling messages in language, and in shaping
the interpretation of meaning.
27
Australia exports sheep to Iraq…
Only Australia exports sheep to Iraq.
- No other countries do
Australia only exports sheep to Iraq.
- It doesn’t import them
Australia exports only sheep to Iraq.
- It doesn’t export anything else
Australia exports sheep only to Iraq.
- It doesn’t export sheep anywhere else
28
view
Linguistics
• Linguistics is the field concerned with various formal
aspects of language and its use
• Computational linguistics, where computers process
language, is an important field within informatics.
29
Syntax and semantics
• Syntax and rules of grammar are important in handling
messages in language, and in shaping the interpretation
of meaning
• However a word for word equivalence is not enough:
some classic machine translations are:
-‘out of sight, out of mind’ = ‘blind idiot’
-‘hydraulic ram’ = ‘water goat’
• Extra, linguistic knowledge is needed - semantic
knowledge about the meaning of the words and their use
in context.
-This semantic knowledge is often grounded in a social
understanding, common to a culture or a community.
30
Interpreting a message
• But it is not just the literal words themselves, the ways
they are used, the ways they are arranged and the
grammar structures used all implicitly form the content
of a message.
• The rules of interpretation, as much as the words
themselves, shape the meaning of a sentence or other
message.
31
“The baby cried. The mommy picked it up.”
• Whose mommy?
• Why did she pick the baby up?
• What makes you think this?
32
Social and cultural context
in interpretation
• We probably assumed it was the baby’s mother, and
she picked up the baby to soothe it
-However, there is nothing in the data that says this.
• Socially understood categories, norms and rules are
built into the way people hear things that are said.
-“The words that we hear enter our minds already conditioned by
our social and cultural environment.” (Devlin)
• Speakers who understand the social categories and
rules that hearers understand and apply, can
communicate their intentions more effectively by
designing messages to be so interpreted.
33
Example from Sacks, discussed by Devlin
Linguistics and informatics
• There are many applications in informatics where ideas
have to be recorded so they can be communicated over
distance and time, and still be understood.
• Linguistics is also highly relevant in the formal areas of
informatics such as designing for communication with
machines and other intelligent agents.
-All computer languages have to have a syntax and semantics,
allowing them to recognise instructions and produce
understandable output.
• Active research fields such as computational linguistics,
cognitive science, and artificial intelligence extend the
“fundamental concepts of communication, knowledge,
data, interaction and information”.
34
Phonetics
quack
quack!
• The phonetic aspects of a language may also
reflect unique cultural properties, or adaptations to an
environment.
• The sound of a language, as well as its vocabulary,
conveys information, and thus possible clues to
environmental context.
-Different speaking styles of humans in city and country regions
– slow versus rapid
• This information may be lost in simple translations, or in
changing media from spoken to written.
35
coin
coin!
Háp
Háp!
Recap
Linguistics is the field concerned with various
formal aspects of language and its use.
Syntax, semantics, social and cultural
environment are all relevant in interpreting the
meaning of a message
36
Inclusion and exclusion through
language
• A fundamental property of language and community is that they
work together to define inclusion and exclusion.
• Anyone who learns the language (which includes norms,
standards, practices) can participate in a community, but without
that they are alien, excommunicated, other.
• A boundary between those who are allowed to communicate or not
is the purpose of many languages, particularly “secret” codes and
languages, e.g.
- Polari, a form of gay slang used mainly within the British theatre
community.
- Nushu, a secret writing of Chinese women
37
Codes and ciphers
• Codes and ciphers are similar in that both try to keep a
message secret by representing it in an obscure form.
-Codes use correspondences at the language or meaning level,
whilst ciphers work at the lower levels of symbolisation.
• Codes and ciphers can be combined, and can be
extremely sophisticated
• Codes are very widespread in informatics, and are
particularly relevant in information security.
38
Codes
• Codes are artificial languages, often encoding a natural
language message that is usually intended for
translation or decoding back into the message intended
by the sender
• Codes are designed to be understood by those in the
know, and to exclude others from understanding their
message.
-In a circus tent the phrase “Hey Rube” might have been
predefined as a code for the message that “a fire has broken
out”. This alerts the circus workers, without causing the general
public alarm.
39
Ciphers
• A cipher maps the elements of a message to other elements, e.g.
abc def ghi jkl mno pqr stu vwx yz
pqr stu vwx yza bcd efg hij klm no
• The bottom row (pqr…) is the key
• Given an enciphered string and the key, it is straightforward to
reconstruct the original message.
• It can be made more complicated, e.g. stringing words together by
dropping the spaces avoids clues due to word length
40
step
pqr stu vwx yza bcd efg hij klm no
abc def ghi jkl mno pqr stu vwx yz
iwt rpi
the cat
41
Try this one yourself – what is the key?
ibm wnt
hal vms
42
?
abc def ghi jkl mno pqr stu vwx yz
zab cde fgh ijk lmn opq rst uvw xy
ibm wnt
hal vms
43
Recap
Codes, ciphers and secret languages are designed to
be understood by those in the know, and exclude
others.
Ciphers are correspondences between sets of
language symbols at the level of individual elements.
Codes involve correspondence between sets of
language symbols at the level of meaning
44
Language and
communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• Communication is “a symbolic process in which people
create shared meanings”
• We have already seen some of the symbolic aspects of
communication, which have properties of their own but
also usually represent some intended meaning.
• The process aspects of communication refer to how
these symbols are packaged, transferred, distorted,
socialised, and related to systems of meaning or belief.
• Language plays a central role in human
communication.
45
Communication – human and
electronic
• In many areas of informatics, communication is both in
electronic form and in various human forms, so a
working knowledge of each type is useful.
• Human communication is more concerned with the
intention, getting the meaning across.
• Electronic communication is more concerned with the
accuracy, and getting the information across. It is not
directly concerned with the meaning.
46
Shannon and Weaver’s information
theory
• Shannon and Weaver’s model of communication was
one of the earliest works on information theory
• It is concerned that the information that is received is
the same as that which is sent
• The model of treats data messages as meaningless:
the content is irrelevant
• Shannon and Weaver’s model underpins many
technical applications, but as a model of human
communication it is limited
47
Shannon and Weaver’s information
theory
48
Levels of human communication
• Communication in informatics is generally
concerned with human and organisational
communications.
-As an instrument of human communication,
electronic communication takes place in human
activity contexts.
• The major levels of human communication are
-interpersonal
-cultural
-intercultural
49
Levels of human communication
• The forms of human communication may be
-Spoken or non-verbal
-Written
-Pictorial and diagrammatic
• And formal or informal in tone, depending on the
audience, and what message is being intended.
• So being able to disentangle the information from the
form is crucial, and not always easy
-Humans do this automatically in everyday language
-But a computer can’t – so we must be conscious of it when
modelling information
50
Recap
Two aspects of communication are the information
aspect and the meaning aspect.
Human communication is more concerned with
intention and meaning.
Electronic communication is more concerned with
accuracy, and getting the information across.
51
51
Language and cultures
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• Cultures are the custodians of languages. They sustain
and transform languages through usage, and in relation
to their commonly understood systems of meaning.
• Culture can be thought of as “the way we understand
things around here”
-Any community that identifies itself as such
• Language is one of the ways cultures identify
themselves as different from others
-And often one of the reasons cultures misunderstand one
another
52
Cultures within cultures
• Cultures often exist within other cultures:
-an ethnic or other socially identified group living within a dominant
culture (such as Australians of Scottish descent)
-lifestyle-based or professional subgroup (nightclub ravers, gangsters,
computer hackers)
• Such subgroups often identify themselves through
specialised language or argot, whose use can signal
membership in a group.
-“she’s laying a heavy trip on us, man”
• The use of argot can restrict communication, but also capture
nuances of specific meaning that are very precise for a
subgroup.
• Subgroups can initiate, revive and use language in nonmainstream ways, helping it to change.
53
Cultures within cultures
• Professional groups develop meanings and usages for
words that are specific to their interests, and which
also serve to mark them out as a group.
-Scientific languages, the specialised jargons of medicine, law,
computing, art or wine tasting all develop to allow efficient,
communally understood and nuanced communication among
practitioners, with richer meanings that those available to the
general public.
• Skilled trades may have words to describe specific
distinctions; other distinctions may be made, but are
felt rather than described.
-For example a mechanic knows how tight to turn a wheel nut;
a bricklayer can snap a brick in half by striking it
54
Subcultures and informatics
• In informatics it is common to describe the language
and knowledge used in a specialised community and to
model what is understood by those terms.
• Terms used by specialised communities may be
unfamiliar or, worse, assumed to have familiar
meanings.
55
Distinctions, language and culture
• Communities, whether ethnically or professionally
based, will develop concepts and words relevant
to the observations they make and distinctions
they need.
• A key motivation in the identification of language
terms is their power as useful distinctions for that
community
• It also implies a higher sensitivity to categories
that those from other cultures may not notice, or
be able to describe in an easily communicable
form.
56
Untranslatable words
mamihlapinatapai
Used in Tierra del Fuego, this has been cited as the most
succinct word, i.e. the hardest to translate elegantly into
English. It means something like:
“looking at each other
hoping that either will
offer to do something
which both parties desire
but are unwilling to do”
57
Untranslatable words
• “Untranslatable” words can provide insights into
cultures and their specific outlooks on life.
-Jassa is the word used by the Saami in Lapland for bodies of
meltwater that their reindeer herds drink
• Some words originate in other cultures, but because the
concept they refer to is useful, they become adopted
without translation.
-e.g. the German word Schadenfreude, meaning the joy taken in
another’s misfortune.
• Other words remain culture-bound and untranslated
-Not useful? Or a lack of sensitivity to the concept it represents?
58
Language death and knowledge
• Language death is currently a global phenomenon
-A language dies out every two weeks across the world
-In 2000, there were roughly 6000 languages in use worldwide
but for 51 of them, only a lone speaker remained, whose death
loses the living link to that language, effectively making it
extinct.
• Many languages are not written down, or their sounds
not recorded
• Once a language dies, knowledge expressed in that
language is effectively lost.
-e.g. medicinal plants, music or craft processes
59
Constructed languages
• Constructed languages are artificially designed or
planned rather than emerging naturally from a community.
-This allows them to be consistent, easy to learn, with simple rules
of composition and avoiding ambiguity.
• Esperanto was designed by L.L. Zamenhof over 100
years ago.
-The idealistic hope for the language was that by having a language
that everyone could speak and understand, international
understanding and peace would follow.
-Not intended to replace original ethnic languages: people would
speak their own language and also Esperanto.
-Despite some criticism Esperanto is still going strong worldwide
60
Cultural traditions
• There are many examples of misunderstandings when
cultures interact.
-Specific gestures can be inappropriate or misunderstood.
-Different usages of familiar terms
• Words can translate into something funny or taboo in
another language.
-Finding catchy, culturally inoffensive names and slogans for
globalised industries becomes a challenge.
• Assumptions made within one cultural tradition may not
translate into the practice of another tradition.
-White dress for weddings here, but for funerals there.
-Socialise first and then do business; or the opposite?
-Read from right to left; from left to right, from top to bottom of the
page? (see next slide)
61
62
Culture and technology
• Technologies and information or media products that
embody a particular convention may not be appreciated
in another culture.
-The technologies of the Internet are sometimes
assumed to be culturally neutral, but have been
found not to be so
• In informatics, knowledge workers dealing with another
person’s language, culture or socially shaped
expectations need enough acculturation and
understanding to ensure products and system designs
are culturally appropriate.
63
Recap
Language is one of the ways cultures
identify themselves.
Cultures sustain and transform
languages through usage, and in
relation to their commonly understood
systems of meaning.
64
Language, culture and time
• Time, as well as space, is a major way in which
we organize our experience:
-Annual reports or journal archives may be organized
chronologically.
-Salaries are paid (weekly) on (hourly) scales, and
computer processes operate using clocks and dates.
-Categories change over time: baby, child, youth, adult,
middle-aged, senior
-Words like “dig” and “groovy” were once “hip and
happening” but became “retro and dated”
65
• Plans are made in relation to time: long-term
strategies, medium-term tactical goals, shortterm operations.
We’ll aim to enter
the South
American market
in about 5 years
Maybe we
could, like, go
out sometime
Two full
breakfasts with
large cappuccinos
to table 4 now!”
• The language used in these examples is related to the
timeframes involved, and the specificity of detail goes
from a general set of possible options to quite precise
data as time becomes more critical.
66
Chronemics
• Different cultures, and even individuals within cultures,
understand time differently.
• Chronemics studies the ways time is variously
experienced.
• Time is often understood as linear, and inevitability
“there” as an objective fact.
-We are somehow thrown into a world that had a history before
we appeared and will continue after we die.
• There are other understandings, and these dimensions
give different ways of organising experience,
information and events.
67
Chronemics
• Some cultures and subcultures do not emphasise linear
clock or calendar time, but rather the natural cycles of
affairs.
-Planting and harvesting, summer and winter, wet season dry
season, sunlight and darkness, the influence of the moon, and
perhaps the influence of other planetary cycles and rhythms.
• There are also cycles in economics, fashion, social
attitudes and in many other areas that are often
modelled for decision making.
• The language, and the organisation of information,
emphasises that understanding.
68
Time and informatics – states
• In informatics, the conception of time depends on
whether it is modelled as a continuous passage, or a
series of discrete events.
• A narrative of a football game might record scores and
the minutes when a goal was scored as:
0-0, 1-0 (2), 1-1(38), 2-1(56), 2-2 (79). Full time 2-2.
• But this does not imply that “nothing happened” after
the 79th minute, nor that the last 11 or so minutes
played may not have seemed longer than they were
for many involved.
• The representation of the game is reduced to a few
states, and the relative times when there was a
change of state – a state-transition.
69
Time and informatics –
time sampling
• Like the granularity (detail) issue for maps, time
sampling is an important decision in describing and
modelling information
-Credit card records show spending patterns, perhaps
peaking at Christmas
• When to sample, what information to sequence, what to
aggregate, and what to leave out are all decisions that
impact on what is recorded, and what patterns can be
seen.
70
Time management
• Multitasking is becoming more important to
productivity in situations of informational abundance
and potential overload.
-In computing architectures, where time-sharing and parallel
processing activities are common
-Project management, where tasks are organised in parallel.
• The idea of time-management is familiar from domestic
situations
-The vegetables cook while the table is being set and the
glassware is drying
• The management of time is thus crucial to efficiency,
but efficiency itself is a cultural value.
71
Characteristics of Monochronic and
Polychronic people (after Hall & Hall)
Monochronic People
Polychronic People
Do one thing at a time,
concentrate on the job
Do many things at once, are
highly distractible and
subject to changes
Take time commitments
seriously
Consider time commitments an
objective to be achieved if
possible
Are committed to the job
Are committed to people and
human relationships
Adhere religiously to plans
Change plans often and easily
Are accustomed to short term
relationships
have strong tendencies to build
life long relationships
72
Monochronic & polychronic societies
• Hall & Hall described how such characteristics apply
generally at cultural levels
• Polychronic societies are those where social
relationships are seen as more important than task
achievement timetables.
• Techno-capitalist societies tend to be monochronic,
differentiating them from many traditional
societies.
-This can have impacts, for example, on knowledge
sharing practices.
73
Time and informatics
• A final aspect of time in informatics concerns whether
information needs to be:
• Real time
-Mapped against time passing in the ‘real world’
-e.g. air traffic control
• Synchronous
-At the same time
• Asynchronous
-Co-ordinated, but not at the same ‘real’ time
• Different types of information systems are required
depending on these aspects.
74
Synchronous and asynchronous
9am London
5pm Perth
5pm London
9am Perth
5pm Perth
9am London
75
Recap
Different cultures understand time differently,
and organise their experience in different ways.
Different ways of modelling time are relevant in
informatics,
e.g. as discrete events or continuous
76
step
• This sentence is written using language to express thoughts.
• Think about this.
• Now think about what you thought about this.
• Did you think in language – were there words “in your head”?
• So can you even think without language?
• If language includes pictures and images, is it any different?
77
Language and thought
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduction
Types of language
How does language begin?
The symbolic aspects of
language
Language and
communication
Language and cultures
Language and thought
Summary
• Language organises our experience, makes 5.
sense of observations and gives us
6.
7.
categories to deal with each new event
8.
• How far can these ideas be taken?
• Could it be that we cannot actually think without language?
• Might language actually determine our thoughts?
• If we don’t have a word for something, we might actually
miss out on perceiving it:
-The Japanese might see seven types of beauty in a garden where
others might only see one or less.
-Native American tribes might have advanced concepts relevant to
quantum physics that other cultures cannot conceive of since they
don’t have those words.
78
Whorf-Sapir hypothesis
• Traditionally, meaning and grammar were
considered to be universal:
• “A basic maxim in linguistics is that anything can
be expressed in any language” (Lenneberg)
-It follows therefore that anything can be translated from one language
to another.
• Against this, Benjamin Lee Whorf, who researched the Hopi
people of New Mexico, their language and worldview,
argued that:
-thoughts and ideas are influenced strongly by language, especially as
this will be largely based on what has been said before in that
language, forming part of an ongoing discourse.
• This is the ‘weaker’ form of the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis,
and is accepted by most people.
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Whorf-Sapir hypothesis
• More strongly, Sapir stated:
“It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to
reality essentially without the use of language and that
language is merely an incidental means of solving
specific problems of communication or reflection … No
two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be
considered as representing the same social reality.”
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Whorf-Sapir hypothesis
• The ‘strong’ Whorf-Sapir hypothesis can be divided
into two different claims:
1. That language shapes thought (this is known as
linguistic determinism)
2. That languages are to some extent mutually
incomprehensible (linguistic relativism)
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Criticisms of Whorf-Sapir hypothesis
• Linguistic determinism (that language shapes thought)
-But thought occurs in children before speech, and animals have
thought as well.
-Field experiments show that people can acquire ideas for which their
native language did not have the capability.
• Linguistic relativism (that languages are to some extent
mutually incomprehensible)
-Criticisms tend to focus on showing how the examples that
prompted the hypothesis were misunderstood.
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Natural semantics metalanguage
• Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard proposed a
natural semantics metalanguage
• They suggest that all complex utterances, across all
languages and cultures, can be reduced to a common
linguistic subset.
• Underneath what is said will be the primitive terms: a
subset of concepts we all share.
• In addition, each language will have a cultural script –
-a set of naturalistic reductions to the metalanguage that provides
its own ways of saying things, reflecting its culturally understood
values
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Modelling information with natural
language
• Much of the representation of information is in language
and numbers.
• We have seen that one of the desirable characteristics for
information is to be reliable
-But this can conflict with some of the functions of language.
• Some issues include:
-multiple meanings
-disputed descriptions
-imagined interactions
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Recap
Although once it was considered that
languages are inter-translatable, it is now
accepted that thoughts and ideas are
influenced strongly by language.
There is still debate on the extent to
which language shapes thought.
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Modelling info w/ natural language: multiple meanings
• Language is inherently flexible - it must be, if it is to be
competent to express any given situation that arises
-One word may be used for many meanings
-The same situation may be described in many ways
• Moreover, the truth of the account is relative to the
observer/narrator, and to what meanings are entailed for the
language user
• Polysemy means a word or image can have many meanings,
and is an issue for modelling information using language.
• Context often helps to disambiguate what is signified, but there
is often a related issue of how much context to model or
describe:
-Trade-off between giving a very precise meaning, and retaining enough
flexibility to apply in the general case.
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Modelling info w/ natural language – disputed
descriptions and imagined interactions
• Can any situation be described objectively?
-For physical measurement and associated description – yes
(perhaps)
• However the sorts of social situation met in organisational
informatics mean that a description and the associated
data can be, and probably is, unreliable
• Although any given account may be self-consistent, it can
be shown as being subject to bias when seen within a
wider view.
-This wider view is not necessarily more ‘objective’ but does tend to
be located within the accepted systems of authority that a
community respects.
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Modelling info w/ natural language – disputed
descriptions
• One view has to prevail for the accepted order to be
maintained – but which?
• It may seem that there is no independent account possible for
any given situation and that only versions of a story are in
principle possible.
• In such cases practical things to do are to
-find the original source
-check the provenance and evidence
-discover what the accepted authority structure is
-find anything that is inconsistent, or falsified by inquiry.
• By reference to the founding myths of a culture, including (in
the limiting case) science, a particular account may become
privileged, and accepted for some time as the ‘true story’.
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Disputed descriptions & intelligent interaction
• The idea of intelligent interaction in informatics is that the
assumptions behind beliefs can be examined, and one party
can understand ‘where the other is coming from’. This can
allow some misunderstandings to be cleared up.
• If we had a perfect model of the language and meaning
attributions of another, we could express an account in
terms of the recipient’s understanding.
-This is possible if we have a ‘bigger’, comprehending, intelligence,
which fully scopes the complexity of the recipient.
• Theories of this include conversational systems and agent
belief modelling systems.
-In practice, this has been done for artificial systems, with a
rudimentary intelligence and an ability to interact with humans (that is,
a greater intelligence).
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Recap
The great flexibility of natural
language is often at odds with the
precision required for description in
informatics.
Some issues include polysemy and
disputed descriptions.
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Summary
• There are many different languages, both natural and
artificial
-Natural language is spoken or written in everyday life by a
community.
-Artificial languages are developed for particular purposes, in
specialised communities.
• All languages require their users to share an
understanding of the conventional signs and what they
mean in some specific world
• Semiotics is concerned with the construction of language
as signs, consisting of the signifier and the signified
• Linguistics is concerned with formal aspects of language
and its use
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Summary
• Communication can be in electronic form (concerned with
accuracy and information), or human form (concerned with
meaning)
• Codes, ciphers and secret languages are used to include
and exclude
• Cultures sustain and transform languages through usage,
and in relation to their commonly understood systems of
meaning
• Thoughts and ideas are influenced strongly by language
• There can be problems in using natural language to model
information
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