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Dear Xueshan,<br>
<br>
You ask "how should we understand this paradox?"<br>
<br>
I suggest that we start by looking at what it might mean for
information or meaning to be 'contained' in a sentence. Lakoff would
have told us that this is a metaphor, and specifically the pervasive
'container metaphor'. According to
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://glossary.sil.org/term/container-metaphor">https://glossary.sil.org/term/container-metaphor</a>:<br>
<br>
=======================================================<br>
<br>
Container metaphor.<br>
<br>
A containment metaphor is an ontological metaphor in which some
concept is represented as:<br>
<ul>
<li> having an inside and outside, and</li>
<li> capable of holding something else.</li>
</ul>
Examples:<br>
(English)<br>
<ul>
<li> I’ve had a full life.</li>
<li> Life is empty for him.</li>
<li> Her life is crammed with activities.</li>
<li> Get the most out of life.</li>
</ul>
Source:<br>
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by.
Chicago: University of Chicago.<br>
29–30,<br>
<br>
========================================================<br>
<br>
The paradox is dissolved by proposing that "In everyday speech it is
usual to say that a sentence has 'an inside and an outside', and
that it is 'capable of holding something else', but this is no more
than a convenient fiction. Both 'information' and 'meaning' (in the
senses you are using) are constituted by social and cognitive
processes, and consideration of these processes can enable us to
understand the relationship between the two terms".<br>
<br>
Best<br>
<br>
Dai<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 26/02/18 09:47, Xueshan Yan wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:000001d3aee6$d0002d60$70008820$@pku.edu.cn">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:0cm"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Dear colleagues,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">In my teaching career of Information Science, I
was often puzzled by the following inference, I call it <b>Paradox
of Meaning and Information</b> or <b>Armenia Paradox</b>.
In order not to produce unnecessary ambiguity, I state it
below and strictly limit our discussion within the human
context.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Suppose an earthquake occurred in Armenia last
night and all of the main media of the world have given the
report about it. On the second day, two students A and B are
putting forward a dialogue facing the newspaper headline “<b>Earthquake
Occurred in Armenia Last Night</b>”:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Q: What is the <b>MEANING</b> contained in
this sentence?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">A: An earthquake occurred in Armenia last
night.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Q: What is the <b>INFORMATION</b> contained in
this sentence?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">A: An earthquake occurred in Armenia last
night.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Thus we come to the conclusion that <b>MEANING
is equal to INFORMATION</b>, or strictly speaking, human
meaning is equal to human information. In Linguistics, the
study of human meaning is called Human Semantics; In
Information Science, the study of human information is
called Human Informatics.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Historically, Human Linguistics has two
definitions: 1, It is the study of human language; 2, It,
also called Anthropological Linguistics or Linguistic
Anthropology, is the historical and cultural study of a
human language. Without loss of generality, we only adopt
the first definitions here, so we regard Human Linguistics
and Linguistics as the same.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Due to Human Semantics is one of the
disciplines of Linguistics and its main task is to deal with
the human meaning, and Human Informatics is one of the
disciplines of Information Science and its main task is to
deal with the human information; Due to human meaning is
equal to human information, thus we have the following
corollary:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">A: <b>Human Informatics is a subfield of Human
Linguistics</b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">According to the definition of general
linguists, language is a vehicle for transmitting
information, therefore, Linguistics is a branch of Human
Informatics, so we have another corollary:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">B: <b>Human Linguistics is a subfield of Human
Informatics</b>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:22.0pt"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Apparently, A and B are contradictory or
logically unacceptable. It is a paradox in Information
Science and Linguistics. In most cases, a settlement about
the related paradox could lead to some important discoveries
in a subject, but how should we understand this paradox?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:0cm"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:0cm"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Best wishes,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.6pt;text-indent:0cm"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"
lang="EN-US">Xueshan</span><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:DengXian" lang="EN-US"></span></p>
</div>
<br>
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