The Form of Information in Science

DOES DISCOURSE HAVE A 'STRUCTURE'? HARRIS'S REVOLUTION IN LINGUISTICS As a freshman back in 1947 I discovered that within the various academic divisions and subdivisions of the University of Pennsylvania there existed a something (it was not a Department, but a piece of the Anthropology Department) called 'Linguistic Analysis'. I was an untalented but enthusiastic student of Greek and a slightly more talented student of German, as well as the son of a translator, so the idea of 'Linguistic Analysis' attracted me, sight unseen, and I signed up for a course. It turned out that 'Linguistic Analysis' was essentially a graduate program - I and another undergraduate called Noam Chomsky were the only two undergraduates who took courses in Linguistic Analysis - and also that it was essentially a one-man show: a professor named Zellig Harris taught all the courses with the aid of graduate Teaching Fellows (and possibly - I am not sure - one Assistant Professor). The technicalities of Linguistic Analysis were formidable, and I never did master them all. But the powerful intellect and personality of Zellig Harris drew me like a lodestone, and, although I majored in Philosophy, I took every course there was to take in Linguistic Analysis from then until my gradua tion. What 'Linguistics' was like before Zellig Harris is something not many people care to remember today.

Autorentext
Paul Mattick, geboren 1944, ist prominenter Kunstkritiker und Professor für Philosophie an der Adelphi University in New York.

Klappentext

DOES DISCOURSE HAVE A 'STRUCTURE'? HARRIS'S REVOLUTION IN LINGUISTICS As a freshman back in 1947 I discovered that within the various academic divisions and subdivisions of the University of Pennsylvania there existed a something (it was not a Department, but a piece of the Anthropology Department) called 'Linguistic Analysis'. I was an untalented but enthusiastic student of Greek and a slightly more talented student of German, as well as the son of a translator, so the idea of 'Linguistic Analysis' attracted me, sight unseen, and I signed up for a course. It turned out that 'Linguistic Analysis' was essentially a graduate program - I and another undergraduate called Noam Chomsky were the only two undergraduates who took courses in Linguistic Analysis - and also that it was essentially a one-man show: a professor named Zellig Harris taught all the courses with the aid of graduate Teaching Fellows (and possibly - I am not sure - one Assistant Professor). The technicalities of Linguistic Analysis were formidable, and I never did master them all. But the powerful intellect and personality of Zellig Harris drew me like a lodestone, and, although I majored in Philosophy, I took every course there was to take in Linguistic Analysis from then until my gradua­ tion. What 'Linguistics' was like before Zellig Harris is something not many people care to remember today.

Inhalt
1 / Reducing Texts to Formulas.- 1. Seeking Canonical Forms.- 2. Analysis of Word Combinations.- 3. Details of the Analysis.- 2 /Result: Formulas of Information.- 1. Meta-science Segments.- 2. Word Classes.- 3. Word Subclasses.- 4. Word Modifiers and Local Operators.- 5. Summary of Word Classes.- 6. Sentence Types.- 7. Sentence Formulas.- 3 / From Structure to Information.- 1. Differences in Structure and Differences in Information.- 2. Formula-based Critique of Information.- 3. Sublanguage Properties.- 4. Further Work.- 5. Toward the Grammar of Science.- 4 / Sublanguage Formulas as Information Units.- 1. Normal Form Linearity: Projection and the Use of the Arrow.- 2. Local Operator Modifiers.- 3. The Classifier 'Response'.- 4. Correlations between W and V Operators.- 5. Sublanguage Homonymities.- 6. Extending Sublanguage Grammar.- 7. Information Structure and the 'r' Operator.- 5 / The Apparatus of Sublanguage Transformations.- 1. A Preliminary Survey of Sublanguage Transformations.- 2. Relinearization.- 3. Reconstruction of Repetitional Zeroing.- 4. Reconstruction of Low-information Zeroing.- 5. Relative Clause.- 6. Larger Transformations.- 7. Comparative.- 8. Quantifiers and the Negative.- 9. Further Regularization.- 6 / Extending the Analysis: The Informational Environment of the Science Sentences.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Word Classes and Sentence Types.- 3. Conclusions.- 7 / Information Units in a French Corpus.- 1. Information Grammar as a Pattern-matcher on Sentences and Linearization Rules to Produce Sentences from Informational Units.- 2. An Applicative Grammar of Informational Units.- 3. Using the Grammar of Informational Units as a Pattern-matcher for a Direct Recognition of Informational Units.- 4. Linearization Rules: Producing Sentences Out ofUnits.- 5. Questions Which Are Not Fully Treated Here.- 6. Conclusion and Applications of the Method Presented Here.- 8 / The Cellular Source of Antibody: A Review.- 1. Background.- 2. Early Observations and Experiments on the Macrophage in Relation to Antibody Formation.- 3. Early Studies on the Lymphatic System in the Production of Antibodies.- 4. Lymphocyte or Plasma Cell as the Antibody-synthesizing Cell.- 5. Correlation of Tissue-extract Antibody with Microscopic Observations.- 6. Extraction of Cells.- 7. Release of Antibody from Tissues and from Cells Cultivated in Vitro.- 8. Studies Involving Aggregation of Bacterial Cells Around Tissue Cells.- 9. Histochemical Staining for Nucleic Acid in Lymph Nodes in Relation to Formation of Antibodies.- 10. Fluorescence Staining for Antibody.- 11. Transfer of Cells of Lymph Nodes, Lymph and Spleen.- 12. Resolution of the Problem: Electron Microscopic Studies of Antibody-producing Cells.- Appendix 1 / Tables of Immunology Reports: English.- Appendix 2 / Tables of Immunology Reports: French.- Appendix 3 / Notes to the Tables of the English Articles.- List of Symbols.