usually treated as singularA system of linguistic philosophy developed by Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950), which explores the arbitrary nature of words and symbols and attempts to refine ways of using language.
Example sentencesExamples
But did you know that the quintessentially American gesture of wagging pairs of fingers in the air as if putting quotes around spoken words derives from general semantics - the term and the discipline that originated with A. Korzybski?
Having said that, what's that about general semantics?
If you have read anything by him you have had a primer on general semantics.
Korzybski, after defined time-binding, developed general semantics, a philosophy based on modern science that understands implicitly the important of language, knowledge and time.
Again, there's some more general semantics (‘the X that S’ where X might not normally take a definite article), and maybe something extra.
Definition of general semantics in US English:
general semantics
plural noun
usually treated as singularA system of linguistic philosophy developed by Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950), which explores the arbitrary nature of words and symbols and attempts to refine ways of using language.
Example sentencesExamples
If you have read anything by him you have had a primer on general semantics.
Korzybski, after defined time-binding, developed general semantics, a philosophy based on modern science that understands implicitly the important of language, knowledge and time.
Again, there's some more general semantics (‘the X that S’ where X might not normally take a definite article), and maybe something extra.
Having said that, what's that about general semantics?
But did you know that the quintessentially American gesture of wagging pairs of fingers in the air as if putting quotes around spoken words derives from general semantics - the term and the discipline that originated with A. Korzybski?