Definition and Examples of Information Content

Definition and Examples of Information Content In linguistics and information theory, the term information content refers to the amount of information conveyed by a particular unit of language in a particular context. An example of information content, suggests  Martin H.  Weik, is the meaning assigned to the data in a message (Communications Standard Dictionary, 1996). As Chalker and Weiner point out in the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (1994), The notion of information content is related to statistical probability. If a unit is totally predictable then, according to information theory, it is informationally redundant and its information content is nil. This is actually true of the to particle in most contexts (e.g. What are you going . . . do?). The concept of information content was first systematically examined in Information, Mechanism, and Meaning  (1969)  by British  physicist and information theorist  Donald M. MacKay. Greetings One of the essential functions of language is to enable members of a speech community to maintain social relations with one another, and greetings are a very straightforward way of doing this. Indeed, an appropriate social interchange may well consist entirely of greetings, without any communication of information content. (Bernard Comrie, On Explaining Language Universals. The New Psychology of Language: Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Language Structures, ed. by Michael Tomasello. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003) Functionalism Functionalism . . . dates back to the early twentieth century and has its roots in the Prague School of Eastern Europe. [Functional frameworks] differ from the Chomskyan frameworks in emphasizing the information content of utterances, and in considering language primarily as a system of communication. . . . Approaches based on functional frameworks have dominated European study of SLA [Second Language Acquisition] and are widely followed elsewhere in the world. (Muriel Saville-Troike, Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge University Press, 2006) Propositions For our purposes here, the focus will be on declarative sentences such as (1) Socrates is talkative. Plainly, utterances of sentences of this type are a direct way of conveying information. We shall call such utterances statements and the information-content conveyed by them propositions. The proposition expressed by an utterance of (1) is (2) That Socrates is talkative. Provided the speaker is sincere and competent, her utterance of (1) could also be taken to express a belief with the content that Socrates is talkative. That belief then has exactly the same information content as the speakers statement: it represents Socrates as being in a certain way (namely, talkative). (Names, Descriptions, and Demonstratives. Philosophy of Language: The Central Topics, ed. by Susana Nuccetelli and Gary Seay. Rowman Littlefield, 2008) The Information Content of Childrens Speech [T]he linguistic utterances of very young children are limited in both length and information content (Piaget, 1955). Children whose sentences are limited to one to two words may request food, toys or other objects, attention, and help. They may also spontaneously note or name objects in their environment and ask or answer questions of who, what or where (Brown, 1980). The information content of these communications, however, is sparse and limited to actions experienced by both listener and speaker and to objects known to both. Usually, only one object or action is requested at a time. As linguistic lexicon and sentence length increase, so too does information content (Piaget, 1955). By four to five years, children may request explanations about causality, with the proverbial why questions. They may also describe their own actions verbally, give others brief instructions in sentence format, or describe objects with a series of words. Even at this stage, however, children have difficulty making themselves understood unless the actions, objects, and events are known to both speaker and hearer. . . . Not until the elementary school years of seven to nine can children fully describe events to listeners unfamiliar with them by incorporating large amounts of information in appropriately structured series of sentences. It is also at this time that children become capable of debating and absorbing factual knowledge transmitted by formal education or other non-experiential means. (Kathleen R. Gibson, Tool Use, Language and Social Behavior in Relationship to Information Processing Abilities. Tools, Language, and Cognition in Human Evolution, ed. by Kathleen R. Gibson and Tim Ingold. Cambridge University Press, 1993) Input-Output Models of Information Content Most any empirical belief . . . will be richer in information content than the experience that led to its acquisitionand this on any plausible account of the appropriate information measures. This is a consequence of the philosophical commonplace that the evidence a person has for an empirical belief rarely entails the belief. While we may come to believe that all armadillos are omnivorous by observing the eating habits of a fair sample of armadillos, the generalization is not implied by any number of propositions attributing various tastes to particular armadillos. In the case of mathematical or logical beliefs, it is rather harder to specify the relevant experiential input. But again it seems that on any appropriate measure of information content the information contained within our mathematical and logical beliefs outruns that contained in our total sensory history. (Stephen Stich, The Idea of Innateness. Collected Papers, Volume 1: Mind and Language, 1972-2010. Oxford University Press, 2011) Also  See MeaningCommunication  and  Communication ProcessConversational ImplicatureIllocutionary ForceLanguage Acquisition

Vincent van Gogh Biography Timeline

Vincent van Gogh Biography Timeline 1853 Vincent is born on March 30 in Groot-Zundert, North Brabant, The Netherlands. His parents are Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819-1907) and Theodorus van Gogh (1822-1885), a Dutch Reformed Church minister. 1857 Brother Theodorus (Theo) van Gogh is born on May 1. 1860 Vincents parents send him to a local elementary school. From 1861 to 1863, he was homeschooled.   1864-66 Vincent attends boarding school in Zevenbergen. 1866 Vincent attends Willem II College in Tilburg. 1869 Vincent starts working as a clerk for the art dealer Goupil Cie in The Hague through family connections. 1873 Vincent transfers to the London office of Goupil; Theo joins Goupil in Brussels. 1874 From October to December, Vincent works at the head office of Goupil in Paris, and then returns to London. 1875 Vincent is again transferred to Goupil in Paris (against his wishes). 1876 In March, Vincent is dismissed from Goupil. Theo transfers to the Goupil office in The Hague. Vincent acquires an etching of Millets Angelus  and accepts a teaching post in Ramsgate, England. In December, he returns to Etten, where his family lives, in December. 1877 From January to April, Vincent works as a book clerk in Dordrecht. In May, he arrives in Amsterdam, stays with uncle, Jan van Gogh, a naval yard commander. There, he prepares for university studies for the ministry. 1878 In July, Vincent gives up his studies and returns to Etten.  In August, he earns admission to a school of evangelism in Brussels, but he fails to obtain a post there. He leaves for the  coal-mining area near Mons, known as Borinage, in Belgium, and teaches the Bible to the poor. 1879 He begins work as a  missionary for six months in Wasmes. 1880 Vincent travels to Cuesmes, where he lives with a mining family, but then moves to Brussels to study perspective and anatomy. Theo supports him financially. 1881 April leaves Brussels to live in Etten. Vincent attempts to have a romantic relationship with his widowed cousin Kee Vos-Stricker, who spurns him. He quarrels with his family and leaves for The Hague around Christmas. 1882 Vincent studies with Anton Mauve, a cousin by marriage. He lives with Clasina Maria Hoornik (Sien).  In August, his family moves to Nuen. 1883 In September, he leaves The Hague and Clasina and works alone in Drenthe. In December, Vincent returns to Nuen. 1884 Vincent begins using  watercolors and studies of weavers. Vincent reads Delacroix on color. Theo joins Goupil in Paris. 1885 Vincent paints about 50 heads of peasants as studies for Potato Eaters.  In November, he goes to Antwerp and acquires Japanese prints. His father dies in March. 1886 In January-March, Vincent studies art at Antwerp Academy. He moves to Paris and studies at Cormon studio. Vincent paints flowers influenced by Delacroix and Monticelli. He meets Impressionists. 1887 The  Impressionists palette influences his work. He collects Japanese prints. Vincent exhibits in a working-class cafà ©. 1888 In February, Vincent goes to Arles. He lives at 2 Place Lamartine in the Yellow House. He visits Saintes Maries de la Mer in the Carmargue in June. On October 23, he was joined by Gauguin. Both artists visit Alfred Bruyas, Courbets patron, in Montpellier in December. Their relationship deteriorates. Vincent mutilates his ear on December 23. Gauguin leaves immediately. 1889 Vincent lives in mental hospital and in the Yellow House at alternate intervals. He voluntarily enters the  hospital in St. Rà ©my. Paul Signac comes to visit. Theo marries Johanna Bonger on April 17. 1890 On January 31, a son Vincent Willem is born to Theo and Johanna. Albert Aurier writes an article about Vincents work. Vincent leaves the hospital in May. He briefly visits Paris. He goes to Auvers-sur-Oise, less than 17 miles from Paris, to begin care under Dr. Paul Gachet, who was recommended by Camille Pissarro. Vincent shoots himself July 27 and dies two days later at age 37. 1891 January 25, Theo dies in Utrecht of syphilis.