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An Approach to the Quantification of Semantic Noise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Charles F. Hockett*
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Extract

In a survey of information theory and some of its implications, Warren Weaver has proposed a distinction between engineering (or channel) noise and semantic noise (1: 94–117). Ordinary Spanish usage reflects this distinction quite neatly. If A speaks to B and B responds with no entiendo, it means ‘I have not heard your words, because of interfering sound or lack of attention; please transmit the same message again’; if he responds with no comprendo, it means ‘I heard you all right, but what I heard doesn't make sense; please paraphrase or explain.’ Channel noise, thus, is the responsible factor when that which leaves a transmitter is not that which reaches the receiver; semantic noise is a discrepancy between the codes used by transmitter and receiver.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1952, The Williams & Wilkins Company

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References

(1) Shannon, Claude E. and Weaver, Warren, The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1949.Google Scholar