Dnia 9.12.2024 o godz. 18:34:12 Ralph Seichter via mailop pisze: > Remembering what I learned a long time ago: The formal definition of > "language" as used in communications research is the transmission of > information by means of a shared system of symbols and rules. Now if > only I could remember the exact source for that definition...
It depends what definition you assume, because it's quite a lot of them, coming from different backgrounds. But probably the most general approach is the one coming from semiotics (the science of signs/symbols). In semiotics, what you described is called a *code*, not a *language*. Code is a more general term than language. It doesn't need to be verbal, while language by definition consists of words, grouped into sentences, and can be spoken. In that sense, emojis can be considered a code (although still being in its formation phase and not yet having an unified, commonly shared "system of symbols and rules" - many emojis are still used and understood differently by different people), similarly to mathematical notation or music sheet notation being a code. BTW, programming languages or "languages" such as HTML also are codes, but not languages in that sense, because you cannot speak them. Codes also can form a layered structure, like in OSI network model :). Representing (encoding) the words of spoken language (primary code) by writing (secondary code) is an obvious example. Then you can add another layer - for example when you want to store the written text in a computer and it becomes encoded in something like UTF-8. And yet another, for example to send it over a non 8-bit capable email channel (to stay at least a bit on topic :)), you encode it either using quoted-printable or base64 (there may be no need for English, but other languages usually use more or less characters outside the ASCII set). But as this is going really off-topic, it's probably better not to continue this thread :) -- Regards, Jaroslaw Rafa r...@rafa.eu.org -- "In a million years, when kids go to school, they're gonna know: once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub." _______________________________________________ mailop mailing list mailop@mailop.org https://list.mailop.org/listinfo/mailop
