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Article published In: Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 26:2/3 (2019) ► pp.296–320

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How linguistic meaning harmonizes with information through meaning conservation

 | Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India
Published online: 12 February 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.18018.mon
Abstract
This paper aims to characterize the relationship between information as defined in the information-theoretic approach and linguistic meaning by way of formulation of computations over the lexicon of a natural language. Information in its information theoretic sense is supposed not to be equivalent to linguistic meaning, whereas linguistic meaning has an intrinsic connection to information as far as the form and structure of the lexicon of a language (in a non-lexicological sense) is concerned. We argue that these two apparently conflicting aspects of the relationship between information and linguistic meaning can be unified by showing that information conserves linguistic meaning, only insofar as computations of a certain kind are defined on the symbolic elements of a lexicon. This has consequences not merely for the nature of lexical learning – natural or artificial or otherwise – but also for the conservation of information in axiomatic systems.
Article outline
  • 1.Introductory background
  • 2.Information, linguistic meaning and computation
  • 3.Why the lexicon?
  • 4.The principle of linguistic meaning conservation
  • 5.Implications
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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