pentagon of meaning
DESCRIPTION
Ogden and Richards published a full book "The Meaning of Meaning" in 1923. It is also a subject of a lot of research by a broad spectrum of scholars & scientists. But they have identified only 3 elements of meaning but we found FIVE. Hence, PENTAGON of Meaning moving from their TRIANGLE of Meaning. The five elements are: Speaker S, Concept X in her mind, Text T to express X, Listener L, who creates Concept X' from T. Out of these only S, T and L are public, open for observation. The concepts X and X' are private separately to S and L and the meaning is X for S and X' for L. That is subject of this PPT. It is elaborated and discussed. From here we need to arrive at common and open meaning of T. We have another PPT for that. There is a full paper Machine Mediated Meaning for Semantic Interoperability, which you can find on slideshare soon. Please leave a comment.TRANSCRIPT
Semantic Web: Dealing with Knowledge & Meaning
Putcha V. Narasimham
Knowledge Enabler Systems
This is also Section 4 of
Meaning is a FIVE ELEMENT concept--- 1923 book identifies only THREE. Inherently meaning of an expression (one of the 5 elements) is subjective and private to speaker and listener ( 2 more elements)..
Pentagon of MEANING
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What is the meaning of ……
Consider the following
1: cat 2: billi or pilli (or better still marjalam) These are Hindi, Telugu & Sanskrit words for cat
1: (a+b)2 2: a2 + 2ab + b2
Is 2 the meaning of 1 or vice versa?
Think …..
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Ms Tabasum ( B Tech 3 year) of Muffackhram Jah College of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad gave the correct answer with reasons in a seminar on 14 DEC 13. Very rare and remarkable
Wrong view of meaning & correction
Most people think it is truebut
NO, Not True
Then?
See the possibilities
In the case of cat and billi
We can only say they are equivalent labels referring to a specific animal
The concept of referent was well-defined through Meaning Triangle
By Ogden and Richard 1910-1923
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Meaning Triangle: Thought, Word & Thing
Ogden & Richard say in
The Meaning of Meaning (1923)
The need for meaning has arisen
Because humans (live beings) use
Signs or symbols for communications / interactions
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Symbol
Thought or Reference
Thing or Referent
Stands for
Word
meaning
ObjectNot direct
Typical Signs or Symbols and Referents
A visual grimace, gesture, or movement
An audible utterance, sound, music
Natural language speech or
Natural language text
Objects,
Phenomena
---------------------
Concepts
Emotions
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Our
Focus
Co
ncr
ete
Men
tal
Meaning of Symbol is Referent
The meaning of a sign or symbol
Is what they referred to
When the symbol is Natural Language Text—NLT
The symbols tend to be complex
And referent is difficult to identify
Correctly and precisely
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Symbol
Thought or Reference
Referent
Stands for
Word
meaning
ObjectIs
Meaning: Significance Created in Mind
According to dictionary
It is valid through NOT complete
Essentially meaning is a concept
Ogden and Richard identified Three Elements of it
We see there are FIVE ELEMENTS
So we move from
Triangle of meaning to
Pentagon of meaning
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The FIVE ELEMENTS of Meaning
1. The original concept X in the mind of
2. Speaker S or writer who
3. Expresses X in Text T of a natural language
4. Listener L receives T & forms
5. Some concept X’ in his mind
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Text T
S L
X’
X
External
Internal
Internal
Internal
External
External
Five Elements together create Meaning
Meaning is just not interpretation of T in isolation
Meaning is dependent on all the FIVE Elements
Let’s study how they together determine the meaning
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Text T
S L
X’
XExternal
Internal
Internal
Internal
Speaker and Expression of Concept X
Speaker S:
Has concept X
Expresses X in
Text T of some language
T is not X
X may be multimodal
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Speaker S
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X
Text T
S
X
Internal
Internal
External
Listener creates her own Meaning X’ of T
Listener gets T & Constructs X’ privately & Subjectively
To her, T MEANS X’
X’ is often NOT X, both being private
NO direct way to know X & X’
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Listener L
x’
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Text T
L
X’
External
Internal
Listener
Subjective Nature of Meaning
X’ is a concept, an idea in mind It is private & personal
It is the only meaning listener can get
Known only to the individual listener
So meaning is subjective
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Listener
x’
Meaning: Generated or recalled, NOT given
Text (signals) which encode X
Can be transmitted but
X & X’ remain as concepts with S or L
Concepts or Meaning have to be GENERATED from T mentally & privately or RECALLED from memory
Concepts as such cannot be GIVEN
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Listener
x’
Five Elements: S, X, T, L and X’
1-S thinks 2-X
& presents it as 3-T
4-L gets T & creates
5-X’ in her mind
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private
Text T
Open & Common
L
SX
X’
private
Relating S, X, T, L and X’
X & X’ are private to S and L
They must be brought out into open common view
To share and make meaning common and public
Explained in the PPT: Shared and Machine Mediated Meaning
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private
Text T
Open & Common
L
SX
X’
private
Conclusion: Pentagon of Meaning
Identified 5 elements of meaning
Used them to define meaning in human context
Discussed subjective nature of meaning and
The need to share private concepts to arrive at common meaning
Did not discuss ‘understanding’
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Keep
Going
1-S thinks 2-X
& presents it as 3-T
4-L gets T & creates
5-X’ in her mind