1957/Cherry/219

The Honorable Lady Welby, who was Lady-in-Waiting 	
 to Queen Victoria, pioneered a movement, nearing 	
 the 20th century, to foster discipline of thought 	
 and expression in many fields of human interest 	
 in education, in science, in all forms of mental 	
 activity, and to examine in the most critical way 	
 such ideas as "meaning," "significance," "truth,"	
 "interpretation," and their bearing on the "value"	
 or "import" of any branch of study and enquiry.	
 One most vital feature was increased awareness of 	
 the great practical importance of understanding 	
 language: how to use and control it; to examine 	
 its inadequacies, ambiguities, sources of error,	
 and the deceits of idiom, metaphor, and ellipsis.	
 Not only universal languages, such as English and 	
 Spanish, but also other sign system--the language 	
 systems of mathematics, of science, and of logic 	
 --are subject to scrutiny. It is only too common 	
 for "language" to be considered as if it were one 	
 thing but there are indeed many types of language 	
 and language system which are entirely distinct.	
 We have already found it necessary to distinguish 	
 between <I>object-language</I> and <I>meta-language</I>, when 	
 discussing linguistics; and we have distinguished 	
 between scientific language and esthetic language.	
 The infant <I>significs</I> does not rest within nursery 	
 of philosophy; his cries are heard in the outside 	
 world of practical affairs. We are affected, in 	
 our daily lives, by misunderstandings, verbal and 	
 mental confusions, with untamed habits of speech 	
 and thought, cheating ourselves as much as others.	
 "Mere language reform," Welby suggested, "is not 	
 enough"; we need at the same time to understand 	
 the processes involved in its use, to examine our 	
 methods of reasoning, and, in particular, to be 	
 critical of the way of language growth and change.	
 It may be that the whole study of communication 	
 (or, more generally, the theory of information) 	
 would well make a certain contribution to such a 	
 discipline, as far as it clarifies some different 	
 aspects of the multi-faceted term <I>information</I>.	
 Whilst one side, at least, has been polished with 	
 mathematics, other sides (semantic and pragmatic 	
 aspects) are beginning to show up, though these 	
 other aspects are not, as yet, truly distinct and 	
 clear. The mathematical communication theory has 	
 certainly shown, both as regards its theorems and 	
 its measure of "selective information rate," some 	
 promise of use and interpretation in the various 	
 sciences which concern, in some way, the idea of 	
 "information"; nevertheless cautions is needed in 	
 extending this existing theory outside its valid,	
 and clearly defined, sphere. Information, <I>of some 	
 kind or other</I>, certainly appears to be a concept 	
 of value in many fields, but this is not to say 	
 that the one mathematical theory and one measure 	
 have indiscriminate application. To the contrary!	
 Bar-Hillel, in particular, has been loud in his 	
 warning: "Unfortunately, however, it often turned 	
 out that impatient scientists in various fields 	
 applied the terminology and the theorems of the 	
 statistical (communication) theory to fields in 	
 which the term <I>information</I> was used . . . in a 	
 semantic sense. . . or even in a pragmatic sense".	
 The Shannon measure of selective information rate 	
 has been set up for a specific purpose; it mainly 	
 concerns the statistical rarity of signals. What 	
 these signals "signify" or "mean," or what their 	
 value or truth is, simply can not be discussed in 	
 the language of mathematical communication theory.
[adapted]