Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 7.1
Intersection of interests in Saussure and Shannon
Citation made in 2004 in the Social Science Citation Index and
in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Saussure (all works)
64
Shannon (all works)
122
Saussure and Shannon
1
References on Google (5 May 2005)
Mathematical theory of communication
53,500
Syntagm
10,300
Mathematical theory of communication AND syntagm
14
the effects of messages on their recipients and that it need not be confined
to signal transmission (Weaver 1949; Fiske 1990).
The theory embodied in the article “A mathematical theory of commu-
nication” is valued directly, rather than analogically, for its scope. Under
certain specified conditions, it is considered applicable to a variety of sys-
tems previously considered as separate entities. Since 1948, and particu-
larly since the late 1970s, the model became relevant to the design as well
as to the understanding of telecommunications and data storage systems.
It currently is regarded as still valid and as setting fundamental limits for
information or signal transmission (Verdú and McLaughlin 2000). The
model of communication in information theory has antecedents traceable
to Aristotle (Sperber and Wilson 1986, 5-6), and it resembles Saussure's
less deliberately abstracted speech circuit (Saussure 1916/1983, 11-13).
In its original intention, however, it was restricted primarily to communi-
cation as signals and not concerned with the understanding of messages.
This chapter preserves the level of concern with signals, and this helps
clarify connections and contrasts between information theory and linguis-
tics. In semiotic terms, linguistics was concerned with signifier, sign, and
signified, both as complexes and at the levels of signifier and of signified.
The primary concern here involves the relation of signifier to signified and
the influence of the interaction of syntagma and paradigm on the realiza-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search