LANGUAGE IN THE LIGHT OF INFORMATION THEORY

In: International social science journal: ISSJ, Band 19, Heft 1, S. 96-106

Abstract

The statistical theory of selective information put forward by C. E. Shannon in Bell Systems Technology J., Vol 27, 379-423, is examined &explained. The model of COMM underlying this theory is constructed as a chain of 5 components in the following order: source of information, encoder, channel, decoder, `sink of information.' Sometimes the source &the sink are combined with their adjacent component into single units, which could be called respectively sender & receiver. The transmission channel is presented mathematically by a matrix of transition probabilities. This model is applied to natural languages & its mathematical concept is briefly summarized. It is asserted that an evaluation of the information theory model from other than an engineering point of view requires a general, unified theory of COMM, which does not exist as yet. The model may be useful in analyses of mass events in language which signif'ly characterize linguistics laws, stylistic trends, the balance of patterns &verbal behavior. The capacity of the mathematical formulae of this model to measure the statistical dependencies of serially ordered units is considered its `most attractive feature.' More res in psycholinguistics is called for in order to test the psychol'al status of the results obtained by applying the model. As examples of such has the following studies are mentioned: A. H. Roberts, A STATISTICAL LIN- GUISTIC ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH, Mouton & Co, 1965; G. Herdan, THE ADVANCED THEORY OF LANGUAGE AS CHOICE AND CHANCE, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, & New York, NY: Springer 1966; W. R. Garner, UNCERTAINTY AND STRUCTURE AS PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS, New York & London: Wiley, 1962. M. Maxfield.