Triangle of reference
Encyclopedia
The triangle of reference (also known as the triangle of meaning and the semiotic triangle) is a model of how linguistic symbols are related to the objects they represent. The triangle was published in The Meaning of Meaning
(1923) by Ogden
and Richards
. While sometimes known as the "Ogden/Richards triangle" the idea dates back until at least 1810, by Bernard Bolzano, in his Beiträge zu einer begründeteren Darstellung der Mathematik.
The relations between the triangular corners may be phrased more precisely in causal terms as follows:
as well as scale
among other things. Notice also, that we perceive the world mostly through our eyes and in alternative phases of seeing and not seeing with change in the environment as the most inmportant information to look for. Our eyes are lenses and we see a surface (2D) in ONE direction (focusing) if we are stationary and the object is not moving either. This is why you may position yourself in one corner of the triangle and by replicating (mirroring) it, you will be able to see the whole picture, your cognitive epistemological and the ontological xistential] or physical model of life, the universe, existence, etc. combined.
used the notion of "direction of fit" to create a taxonomy of illocutionary act
s.
Word-to-World Fit
World-to-Word Fit
Actually the arrows indicate that there is something exchanged between the two parties and it is a feedback cycle. Especially, if you imagine that the world is represented in both persons' mind and used for reality check. If you look at the triangle above again, then remember that reality check is not what is indicated there between the sign and the referent and mareked as "true', because a term or a sign is allocated "arbitrarily'. What you check for is the observance of the law of identity which requires you and your partner to sort out that you are talking about the same thing. So the chunk of reality and the term are replacable/interchangeable within limits and your concepts in the mind as presented in some appropriate way are all related and mean the same thing. Usually the check does not stop there, your ideas must also be tested for feasibility and doability to make sure that they are "real" and not "phantasy". Reality check comes from consolidating your experience with other people's experience to avoid solipsism
and/or by putting your ideas (projection) in practice (production) and see the reaction. Notice, however how vague the verbs used and how the concept of a fit itself is left unexplained in details.
, the anthropological theories of the modern age "no longer work and the theories of the new age are not yet known". Percy therefore sees his task as coming up with a new theory of man, which he chooses to center on language, man's attribute that separates him from the animals. Percy regrets that no existing research really deals with the question of how language really works, of how human beings use and understand the symbols of linguistics. Percy puts this question into a sort of no-man's land, what he calls a "terra incognita", between linguistics and psychology.
The Delta Factor, first published in January 1975, is Percy's theory of language on the one hand and his theory of man in a nutshell on the other, eventually to be expanded in The Message in the Bottle
(1975). It adapts itself to the story of Helen Keller
's learning to say and sign the word 'water' while Annie Sullivan poured water over her hands and repeatedly made the signs for water into her hand. A behaviorist reading of this scene might draw a causal relationship such that in response to Sullivan's stimuli in her hand Keller made a connection in her brain between the sign and the substance. This is too simplistic a reading, insists Percy. Keller was receiving from both the sign for water and the water itself, which make up a triangle together with Helen such that each corner leads to the other two corners. Percy argues that this linguistic triangle is "absolutely irreducible" and serves as the building block for all of human intelligence. The moment when this Delta Δ entered the mind of man, he became man.
Furthermore, the corners of the triangle depart and evolve from their behaviorist perspectives. Helen Keller
becomes something other than just an organism in her environment because she is coupling two unrelated things—water the word and water the liquid—together. Likewise, water the liquid is made something more than water in itself because Keller has coupled it with the arbitrary sound 'water', and water the word becomes more than just the sound or sign for it. In this way, "the Delta phenomenon yielded a new world and maybe a new way of getting at it. It was not the world of organisms and environments but just as real and twice as human" -- man is made whole by the Delta Δ where the popular notions of religion and science had split him in two.
Looking at the story and example to illustrate thinking cognition
one may see/interpret the set in terms of semantic primitives that are the building blocks of thinking in the pre-language period of individual and collective development. In terms of semantic primitives everything may be reduced to the concepts of object
, relation
and property
that are the elements of an upper or foundation ontology. Here water (an object (a phyiscal tangible object) is related (through the mental operation abstraction represented by a verb) to the word water (another object, but as the result of the operation a property of the original object, now an object of abstraction or concept in the mind in whatever physical variation). This triplicity, trichonomyhttp://www.dictionarist.com/trichonomy or triangle is present in many other wording and model of the world, sometimes making you dazzled as they were paradoxes, because it is difficult to think in threes, even in algebra. (By the way, how do you multiply three numbers?)
The Meaning of Meaning
Although the original text was published in 1923 it has been used as a textbook in many fields including linguistics, philosophy, language, cognitive science and most recently semantics. The book has been in print continuously since 1923. The most recent edition is the critical edition prepared...
(1923) by Ogden
Charles Kay Ogden
Charles Kay Ogden was an English linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts and philosophy, having a broad impact particularly as an editor, translator, and activist on...
and Richards
I. A. Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician....
. While sometimes known as the "Ogden/Richards triangle" the idea dates back until at least 1810, by Bernard Bolzano, in his Beiträge zu einer begründeteren Darstellung der Mathematik.
The relations between the triangular corners may be phrased more precisely in causal terms as follows:
- The matter evokes the writer's thought.
- The writer refers the matter to the symbol.
- The symbol evokes the reader's thought.
- The reader refers the symbol back to the matter.
The commuicative stand
Such a triangle represents ONE person, whereas communication takes place between TWO (objects, not necessarily persons). So imagine another triangle and consider that for the two to understand each other, the content that the "triangles" represent must fit or be aligned. Clearly, this calls for synchronisation and an interfaceInterface
-Academic journals:* Interface: a journal for and about social movements* Interfaces * Journal of the Royal Society Interface* The Technology Interface Journal-Science:* Biointerface* Interface , boundary surface...
as well as scale
Scale
-Length:* Architect's scale, a ruler-like device which facilitates the production of technical drawings* Engineer's scale, a ruler-like device similar to the Architect's scale, they are helpful when drawing rooms...
among other things. Notice also, that we perceive the world mostly through our eyes and in alternative phases of seeing and not seeing with change in the environment as the most inmportant information to look for. Our eyes are lenses and we see a surface (2D) in ONE direction (focusing) if we are stationary and the object is not moving either. This is why you may position yourself in one corner of the triangle and by replicating (mirroring) it, you will be able to see the whole picture, your cognitive epistemological and the ontological xistential] or physical model of life, the universe, existence, etc. combined.
Direction of fit
John SearleJohn Searle
John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...
used the notion of "direction of fit" to create a taxonomy of illocutionary act
Illocutionary act
Illocutionary act is a term in linguistics introduced by John L. Austin in his investigation of the various aspects of speech acts. We may sum up Austin's theory of speech acts with the following example...
s.
| World or Referent | intended → | Writer's Thought | |
|---|---|---|---|
| decoded ↑ | ↓ encoded | ||
| Thought Reader's | ← extended | Symbol or Word |
Word-to-World Fit
- Writer's THOUGHT retrieves SYMBOL suited to REFERENT, Word suited to World.
World-to-Word Fit
- Reader's THOUGHT retrieves REFERENT suited to SYMBOL, World suited to Word.
Actually the arrows indicate that there is something exchanged between the two parties and it is a feedback cycle. Especially, if you imagine that the world is represented in both persons' mind and used for reality check. If you look at the triangle above again, then remember that reality check is not what is indicated there between the sign and the referent and mareked as "true', because a term or a sign is allocated "arbitrarily'. What you check for is the observance of the law of identity which requires you and your partner to sort out that you are talking about the same thing. So the chunk of reality and the term are replacable/interchangeable within limits and your concepts in the mind as presented in some appropriate way are all related and mean the same thing. Usually the check does not stop there, your ideas must also be tested for feasibility and doability to make sure that they are "real" and not "phantasy". Reality check comes from consolidating your experience with other people's experience to avoid solipsism
Solipsism
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus and ipse . Solipsism as an epistemological position holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not...
and/or by putting your ideas (projection) in practice (production) and see the reaction. Notice, however how vague the verbs used and how the concept of a fit itself is left unexplained in details.
The Delta Factor
According to Walker PercyWalker Percy
Walker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
, the anthropological theories of the modern age "no longer work and the theories of the new age are not yet known". Percy therefore sees his task as coming up with a new theory of man, which he chooses to center on language, man's attribute that separates him from the animals. Percy regrets that no existing research really deals with the question of how language really works, of how human beings use and understand the symbols of linguistics. Percy puts this question into a sort of no-man's land, what he calls a "terra incognita", between linguistics and psychology.
The Delta Factor, first published in January 1975, is Percy's theory of language on the one hand and his theory of man in a nutshell on the other, eventually to be expanded in The Message in the Bottle
The Message in the Bottle
The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man is, How Queer Language is, and What One Has to Do with the Other is a collection of essays on semiotics written by Walker Percy and first published in 1975...
(1975). It adapts itself to the story of Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
's learning to say and sign the word 'water' while Annie Sullivan poured water over her hands and repeatedly made the signs for water into her hand. A behaviorist reading of this scene might draw a causal relationship such that in response to Sullivan's stimuli in her hand Keller made a connection in her brain between the sign and the substance. This is too simplistic a reading, insists Percy. Keller was receiving from both the sign for water and the water itself, which make up a triangle together with Helen such that each corner leads to the other two corners. Percy argues that this linguistic triangle is "absolutely irreducible" and serves as the building block for all of human intelligence. The moment when this Delta Δ entered the mind of man, he became man.
Furthermore, the corners of the triangle depart and evolve from their behaviorist perspectives. Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
becomes something other than just an organism in her environment because she is coupling two unrelated things—water the word and water the liquid—together. Likewise, water the liquid is made something more than water in itself because Keller has coupled it with the arbitrary sound 'water', and water the word becomes more than just the sound or sign for it. In this way, "the Delta phenomenon yielded a new world and maybe a new way of getting at it. It was not the world of organisms and environments but just as real and twice as human" -- man is made whole by the Delta Δ where the popular notions of religion and science had split him in two.
Looking at the story and example to illustrate thinking cognition
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
one may see/interpret the set in terms of semantic primitives that are the building blocks of thinking in the pre-language period of individual and collective development. In terms of semantic primitives everything may be reduced to the concepts of object
Object
Object may refer to:* Object , a thing, being or concept** Entity, something that is tangible and within the grasp of the senses* As used in object relations theories of psychoanalysis, that to which a subject relates....
, relation
Relation
Relation or Relations may refer to:-General use:* Kinship, relationship by genealogical origin*Social relations, in social science, social interaction between two or more individuals...
and property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
that are the elements of an upper or foundation ontology. Here water (an object (a phyiscal tangible object) is related (through the mental operation abstraction represented by a verb) to the word water (another object, but as the result of the operation a property of the original object, now an object of abstraction or concept in the mind in whatever physical variation). This triplicity, trichonomyhttp://www.dictionarist.com/trichonomy or triangle is present in many other wording and model of the world, sometimes making you dazzled as they were paradoxes, because it is difficult to think in threes, even in algebra. (By the way, how do you multiply three numbers?)
External links
- Jessica Erickstad (1998) Richards' Meaning of Meaning Theory. University of Colorado at Boulder.
- Allie Cahill (1998) "Proper Meaning Superstition" (I. A. Richards). University of Colorado at Boulder.