SKETCH FOR A DYNAMIC THEORY OF LANGUAGE

Abstract

One important issue that modern communication theory does not deal with is the physical substratum of information. We advance here the thesis that information is generated by the ever increasing complexity of a “self”‐organizing hierarchical system—which evolves via cascading bifurcations giving rise to broken symmetry. We call “Language” the process which reveals that information, namely the cognitive gadget which “compresses” the complexity generated by broken symmetry‐thereby providing “minimal length” algorithms for triggering an “internal representation” or the replication of the physical system involved. This compressibility has an obvious “survival value” since it allows the possessor of language to reduce and predict a rapidly changing environment. In characterizing language, like any open system far from equilibrium, the usual concept of free energy mediating a conflict between internal energy and entropy—is not only irrelevant but also wrong. The concepts of “complexity” and organization seem here more pertinent.