LANGUAGE: AN OVERVIEW OF A RANGE OF VIEWPOINTS,
Abstract
With the expanding interest by mathematicians and data processing specialists in a field formerly reserved to the social or behavioral scientist, an attempt is made to summarize the variations in approach taken to the study of language by the linguist, the behaviorist, and the statistician. SUMMARY: To communicate optimally with automatic symbol manipulation (or data processing) equipment, it is shown that we must know vastly more about communicating via symbols than we have known. The search for needed knowledge is categorized as (1) logistic -- specification of syntax and semantics of symbols; (2) linguistic -- discovery of syntax from observation of symbol events and inference of semantics; (3) psychologic -- discovery of semantics and pragmatics from analysis of symbol events and syntax. Examination of the directions of study emphasizes the paucity of knowledge of language and range and depth of opportunity that remain in man's study of this tool.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 30, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0612945
Entities
People
- Louise Schultz
Organizations
- System Development Corporation