Information Theory and Language

Information Theory and Language
Author: Łukasz Dębowski
Publisher: MDPI
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3039360264

“Information Theory and Language” is a collection of 12 articles that appeared recently in Entropy as part of a Special Issue of the same title. These contributions represent state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research at the interface of information theory and language studies. They concern in particular: • Applications of information theoretic concepts such as Shannon and Rényi entropies, mutual information, and rate–distortion curves to the research of natural languages; • Mathematical work in information theory inspired by natural language phenomena, such as deriving moments of subword complexity or proving continuity of mutual information; • Empirical and theoretical investigation of quantitative laws of natural language such as Zipf’s law, Herdan’s law, and Menzerath–Altmann’s law; • Empirical and theoretical investigations of statistical language models, including recently developed neural language models, their entropies, and other parameters; • Standardizing language resources for statistical investigation of natural language; • Other topics concerning semantics, syntax, and critical phenomena. Whereas the traditional divide between probabilistic and formal approaches to human language, cultivated in the disjoint scholarships of natural sciences and humanities, has been blurred in recent years, this book can contribute to pointing out potential areas of future research cross-fertilization.

A Theory of Language and Information

A Theory of Language and Information
Author: Zellig Sabbettai Harris
Publisher:
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1991
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

In this, his magnum opus, distinguished linguist Zellig Harris presents a formal theory of language structure, in which syntax is characterized as an orderly system of departures from random combinations of sounds, words, and indeed of all elements of language.

Theory of Language

Theory of Language
Author: Steven Weisler
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2000
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780262731256

Along with coverage of phonics, phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, the text covers more unconventional topics including language and culture, and language evolution."--BOOK JACKET.

The Logic of Information

The Logic of Information
Author: Luciano Floridi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-01-21
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0192570277

Luciano Floridi presents an innovative approach to philosophy, conceived as conceptual design. He explores how we make, transform, refine, and improve the objects of our knowledge. His starting point is that reality provides the data, to be understood as constraining affordances, and we transform them into information, like semantic engines. Such transformation or repurposing is not equivalent to portraying, or picturing, or photographing, or photocopying anything. It is more like cooking: the dish does not represent the ingredients, it uses them to make something else out of them, yet the reality of the dish and its properties hugely depend on the reality and the properties of the ingredients. Models are not representations understood as pictures, but interpretations understood as data elaborations, of systems. Thus, he articulates and defends the thesis that knowledge is design and philosophy is the ultimate form of conceptual design. Although entirely independent of Floridi's previous books, The Philosophy of Information (OUP 2011) and The Ethics of Information (OUP 2013), The Logic of Information both complements the existing volumes and presents new work on the foundations of the philosophy of information.

A Theory of Predicates

A Theory of Predicates
Author: Farrell Ackerman
Publisher: Stanford Univ Center for the Study
Total Pages: 402
Release: 1998
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781575860862

When studying linguistics, it is commonplace to find that information packaged into a single word in one language is expressed by several independent words in another language. This observation raises an important question: how can linguistics research represent what is the same among languages while accounting for the obvious differences between them? In this work, two linguists-Farrell Ackerman and Gert Webelhuth-from different theoretical paradigms develop a new general theory of natural language predicates. This theory is capable of addressing a broad range of issues concerning (complex) predicates, many of which remain unresolved in previous theoretical proposals. The book focuses on cross-linguistically recurring patterns of predicate formation. It also provides a detailed implementation of Ackerman and Webelhuth's theory for German tense-aspect, passive, causative, and verb-particle predicates. In addition, a discussion of the extension of these representative analyses to the same predicate construction in other languages is presented. Beyond providing a formalism for the analysis of language-particular predicates, the authors demonstrate how the basic theoretical mechanism they develop can be employed to explain universal tendencies of predicate formation.

On Language

On Language
Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: The New Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2017-02-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1595587616

The two most popular titles by the noted linguist and critic in one volume—an ideal introduction to his work. On Language features some of Noam Chomsky’s most informal and highly accessible work. In Part I, Language and Responsibility, Chomsky presents a fascinating self-portrait of his political, moral, and linguistic thinking. In Part II, Reflections on Language, Chomsky explores the more general implications of the study of language and offers incisive analyses of the controversies among psychologists, philosophers, and linguists over fundamental questions of language. “Language and Responsibility is a well-organized, clearly written and comprehensive introduction to Chomsky’s thought.” —The New York Times Book Review “Language and Responsibility brings together in one readable volume Chomsky’s positions on issues ranging from politics and philosophy of science to recent advances in linguistic theory. . . . The clarity of presentation at times approaches that of Bertrand Russell in his political and more popular philosophical essays.” —Contemporary Psychology “Reflections on Language is profoundly satisfying and impressive. It is the clearest and most developed account of the case of universal grammar and of the relations between his theory of language and the innate faculties of mind responsible for language acquisition and use.” —Patrick Flanagan

Theory of Language

Theory of Language
Author: Karl Bühler
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 618
Release: 2011-04-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9027286868

Karl Bühler (1879–1963) was one of the leading theoreticians of language of the twentieth century. Although primarily a psychologist, Bühler devoted much of his attention to the study of language and language theory. His masterwork Sprachtheorie (1934) quickly gained recognition in the fields of linguistics, semiotics, the philosophy of language and the psychology of language. This new edition of the English translation of Bühler’s theory begins with a survey on ‘Bühler’s legacy’ for modern linguistics (Werner Abraham), followed by the Theory of Language, and finally with a special ‘Postscript: Twenty-five Years Later ...’ (Achim Eschbach). Bühler’s theory is divided into four parts. Part I discusses the four axioms or principles of language research, the most famous of which is the first, the organon model, the base of Bühler's instrumental view of language. Part II treats the role of indexicality in language and discusses deixis as one determinant of speech. Part III examines the symbolic field, dealing with context, onomatopoeia and the function of case. Part IV deals with the elements of language and their organization (syllabification, the definition of the word, metaphor, anaphora, etc).The text is accompanied by an Introduction (Achim Eschbach); Translator's preface (Donald Fraser Goodwin); Glossary of terms; and a Bibliography of cited works.

Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language and Cybernetics

Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language and Cybernetics
Author: Jagjit Singh
Publisher: New York : Dover Publications
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1966
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

Although recent work on the theory of language, information, and automata leans heavily on some rather difficult mathematics, to understand its main ideas we need only know simple elaborations of four commonplace principles.

Animal Communication Theory

Animal Communication Theory
Author: Ulrich E. Stegmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-07-11
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781108464727

The explanation of animal communication by means of concepts like information, meaning and reference is one of the central foundational issues in animal behaviour studies. This book explores these issues, revolving around questions such as: • What is the nature of information? • What theoretical roles does information play in animal communication studies? • Is it justified to employ these concepts in order to explain animal communication? • What is the relation between animal signals and human language? The book approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including ethology, animal cognition, theoretical biology and evolutionary biology, as well as philosophy of biology and mind. A comprehensive introduction familiarises non-specialists with the field and leads on to chapters ranging from philosophical and theoretical analyses to case studies involving primates, birds and insects. The resulting survey of new and established concepts and methodologies will guide future empirical and theoretical research.

A Theory of Linguistic Individuality for Authorship Analysis

A Theory of Linguistic Individuality for Authorship Analysis
Author: Andrea Nini
Publisher: Elements in Forensic Linguisti
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2023-06-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108971385

Introduces a formal theory of linguistic individuality, a perspective-changing framework moving the field towards more cognitively realistic methods of authorship analysis.