Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
from the recurrence of identical word forms in different systems, with
contrasting meanings. Under premodernity, this form of organization
could be imposed by human syntactic labor; under modernity, it can be
generated computationally and is commonly implemented for retrieval
from full text.
Finally, cut words can be grouped by referring to considerations
of meaning, including similarity, opposition, and other connections.
Grouping by meaning—semantic considerations—corresponds to an
influential sense of paradigm as the network of associations acquired by
a word considered apart from its syntagma, congruent with Saussure's
understanding:
Outside the context of discourse, words having something in common are associ-
ated together in the memory. (1916/1983, 121)
Grouping by reference to meaning is a form of semantic organization—
drawing on human understanding and memory—and requires human
semantic labor. The necessary presence of understanding and memory
indicates a link with semantic networks but also reveals a contrast; the
greater complexity possible in grouping cut pieces suggests that rela-
tions of meaning may be difficult to capture in computationally tracta-
ble models. Under premodernity, similar instruments and objects of labor
(hand, scissors, and paper) could be used for semantic organization and
were employed for syntactic organization. Under modernity, grouping by
meaning cannot be implemented immediately by computation and would
require continual direct human semantic labor, using a materially dif-
ferent instrument and object of labor. For forms of syntactic organiza-
tion, the change in instrument (from scissors and hand to computational
operations) and object of labor (from paper to electronic storage) enables
greatly increased speed and scope.
Demonstrating the material embodiment of different senses of para-
digm enables isolation of the specific sense of paradigm for retrieval from
full text, without human semantic intervention in description. The pri-
mary sense is of the varied meanings acquired by a word in different syn-
tagmas. This sense has a material basis, with contrasting instruments and
objects of labor between premodernity and modernity. It embodies one
aspect of the second sense of paradigm, referring to units or members
of an associative group, specifically to an associative group of patterns
Search WWH ::




Custom Search