2 Meanings and information units
We know from physics that quantity is a universal characteristic of the
real world. However, quantity could not be perceived without another
universal characteristic, which is the property to be substituted and
which we will call electivity . Let us show their mutual need by a
simple example of perceiving a spatial object. One can estimate an
object’s size, that is, its quantitative value as its spatial extension,
thanks to its boundaries in space11Here we leave aside that the
perceived size of objects depends on a number of factors. See,
however, Tal Makovski (2017), “investigating how the boundaries of an
object and, particularly, the absence of these boundaries, impact its
size perception”. (whether they are its external line, its color,
matter, texture, form or structure). The mutual need of an extension and
boundaries consists in that an extension doesn’t exist without
boundaries, as well as boundaries don’t exist without extension. But
their characteristics are different: When determining an object’s size
in this way, we assume that quantity has a property which distinguishes
it from what we call electivity. An extension, characterized by
quantity, has the property to be accumulated: The smaller is included in
the larger. A boundary (we consider it ideal, that is, without
extension), which separates two extensions, on the contrary, can only be
substituted by another one and so electivity has the property to be
substituted.
Information refers to that from which it is an abstraction sent. Spatial
objects are displayed in language by concrete noun meanings, which
contain information transmitted by these objects. So noun meanings refer
to objects. Quantity observed in spatial objects can also be displayed
in language, but the only quantity abstraction is the state of being
included, which is what refers to the quantity. Unlike meaning, the
abstract state of being included cannot be conscious. In what follows,
we will show that this state is displayed in an operational structure,
which accompanies the meaning in speech. Actually, in contrast to
quantity, abstract state of being included characterizes neither an
individual object nor a meaning. A spatial object, as we have shown
above, is characterized not only by quantity, but also by electivity.
Electivity is also an abstract concept. Electivity is referred to by its
state of being substituted, which is displayed in an operational
structure too.
The concepts of inclusion and substitution are naturally derived from
two simple operations in which the derivative element is formed from the
initial one in such a way that the difference between inclusion and
substitution is determined in the absence of any content for the
elements, i.e., without reference to outside objects and not due to the
content of the elements themselves (in order not to “multiply entities
without necessity”). The difference created in this way is provided by
the fact that the operations are formed by elements determined by the
operations themselves. We do not know in what form and at what stage of
human genesis these operations exist and whether they exist materially
at all. But the structures formed by these operations exhaustively
explain the defining characteristics of the three universal word
classes, in relation to which they act as the same kind of abstraction
as inclusion and substitution in relation to quantity and electivity,
respectively. As for the relationship between quantity and electivity
that exists in the real world, it is displayed in the combining of
operations, i.e., in that they are carried out coupled. So, there are aquantitative and an elective operation.
The quantitative operation introduces a relationq 0 ˂ Q , where q 0(initial element) is a quantity being part of the quantityQ 22One can see quantity determined as above in brain.
Signals perceived by our five major senses represent object’s
quantifiable parameters – bright or dim light of a particular colour,
loud or soft sound of a particular pitch, strong or not strong touch,
strong or weak smell, intense or poorly perceived taste. Quantitative
parameters are integrated in a process of recognition – as a shape
and colour of the object, as a cumulative effect caused by stimulation
of olfactory receptors, etc. (derivative element). We don’t use the
symbol ˂ as mathematics to mark that one number is less than another. It
means here that the quantity Q has q 0 as
its accumulated part. The elective operation performs a substitutione 0 → E , where the initial elemente 0 is a substituted element, E , a
substituting derivative one. The elements brought out from the
operations become static and constitute bits of non-semantic
information. We will call these elements operational states and
the combination of the operational states accompanying a semantic
information in speech, operational information . The operational
states can be used in semantic information while remaining coupled or
separately (ceasing to be unobservable, see further). So, the quantity
operation means that the initial quantitative stateq 0 is included in the including derivative
quantitative state Q 33The terms “includes, including”
and “is included” are chosen because they express the gist of
respective operational relations and are in no way related to set
theory. and the electivity operation means that the initial elective
state e 0 is substituted by the substituting
derivative elective state E . If the initial states of both
operations are determined by the opposition of a static element to to
the operation as a process, the derivative states, in addition, are
characterized by a different relation to the initial states. If the
derivative quantitative state can be determined as including, the
initial state remains undetermined in the operation. Outside the
operation, it always accompanies the derivative state and that’s what
makes it involved in quantity. Similarly, if the derivative elective
state can be determined as substituting, the initial state remains
undetermined. Outside the operation, it has no quantitative
characteristic and on this basis is defined as elective.
The starting point in analyzing the meaning of a sentence is the
meanings of the words that make up the sentence. The available means of
describing linguistic meanings, in particular by means of componential
analysis, semantic decomposition or through their definition,
disintegrate the meanings via other whole meanings to reveal their
structure (when we say “whole”, we mean that any meaning is expressed
by a separate word). But are there other entities in speech besides
meanings that are related to them and responsible for their relationship
in a sentence?
Aphasia demonstrates that meaning and its form diverge in certain
circumstances. Dronkers and Baldo (2009: 343) describe patients with
anomic aphasia as follows:
When searching for a word, some patients with anomic aphasia paraphrase
using words that they can easily retrieve. For instance, a patient shown
a drawing of a pair of tongs said “You pick up things with it.” Such
circumlocutions demonstrate that patients with anomic aphasia have lost
neither conceptual understanding nor the ability to build coherent
sentences and phrases.
Whereas circumlocutions may be a characteristic feature of the speech of
some patients with anomic aphasia, the main characteristic displayed by
other patients may be periods of slow and halting speech as they search
for the correct word. For instance, when shown a picture, a patient
might say, “It’s a, ummm, uhhh, a, a, a … I know what it is,
it’s a … Aww hell, it’s there but I just can’t get it.”
The message of the examples with aphasia is that the patients possessing
the concept of the thing can’t remember the word whose meaning enables
naming.
Now, let’s imagine that a word is omitted (or not heard), but we can,
however, understand the sentence. Its understanding is possible if we
turn to a meaning which is to a greater or lesser extent determined by
the sentence or the context so that the missing word may not exist at
all or, if it does, can be selected by its meaning. For example, to
understand the sentence Up the <…>,
on the second floor , we turn to the meaning ʻsomething we can climb to
get on the second floorʼ or to more specific meanings, which can be then
expressed by the words stairs, ladder, tree , etc. W. Chafe (2018:
28) argues: “Because the thought-sound association is such a pervasive
aspect of daily experience, it can be surprisingly difficult for anyone
who is old enough to speak to separate the two. … I recently had
occasion to think over well-known film director whose name … was
briefly inhibited. … I was conscious of everything about him
except his name. It wasn’t long before the sound Alfred Hitchcockfound its way back to my consciousness, but while it was absent the
thought-sound association lacked its bottom half. … Separating a
thought from a sound can be experienced in the opposite direction in
rote learning.” It is also known that polysemy is explained by the
ability of a linguistic sign to accumulate more than one meaning under
one form. But a word polysemous in dictionary loses its polysemy (or
actualizes double meaning) in speech.
All this suggests that in
comprehending the speech, the sound word becomes unnecessary for the
addressee, and the addressee operates only with meanings that create a
semantic whole. In other words, in meaningful speech, the meaning is
separated from the phonetic word. We will call meanings in speech
separated from signs information units . The information units get
rid of the signs to become an informational continuum, a formulated
thought.