Relevance: communication and cognition
Relevance: communication and cognition
The computer and the mind: an introduction to cognitive science
The computer and the mind: an introduction to cognitive science
Writing and literary work in copyright: a binational and historical analysis
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Entropy of English text: experiments with humans and a machine learning system based on rough sets
Information Sciences: an International Journal - From rough sets to soft computing
Information society or cash nexus?: a study of the United States as a copyright haven
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Information theory: 50 years of discovery
Information theory: 50 years of discovery
Lossy source coding (invited paper)
Information theory
Letters to the editor: go to statement considered harmful
Communications of the ACM
Mechanizing proof: computing, risk, and trust
Mechanizing proof: computing, risk, and trust
From Writing to Computers
Knowledge management: hype, hope, or help?
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Humanizing Information Technology
Humanizing Information Technology
Computation: finite and infinite machines
Computation: finite and infinite machines
Selection power and selection labor for information retrieval
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
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An analogy is established between the syntagm and paradigm from Saussurean linguistics and the message and messages for selection from the information theory initiated by Claude Shannon. The analogy is pursued both as an end in itself and for its analytic value in understanding patterns of retrieval from full-text systems. The multivalency of individual words when isolated from their syntagm is contrasted with the relative stability of meaning of multiword sequences, when searching ordinary written discourse. The syntagm is understood as the linear sequence of oral and written language. Saussure's understanding of the word, as a unit that compels recognition by the mind, is endorsed, although not regarded as final. The lesser multivalency of multiword sequences is understood as the greater determination of signification by the extended syntagm. The paradigm is primarily understood as the network of associations a word acquires when considered apart from the syntagm. The restriction of information theory to expression or signals, and its focus on the combinatorial aspects of the message, is sustained. The message in the model of communication in information theory can include sequences of written language. Shannon's understanding of the written word, as a cohesive group of letters, with strong internal statistical influences, is added to the Saussurean conception. Sequences of more than one word are regarded as weakly correlated concatenations of cohesive units. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.