Language and communication

Abstract

From Chapter 1, "By Way of Introduction": "The orientation of this book is strongly biased in two directions; it is scientific, and it is psychological.A scientific study of language, as opposed to a speculative discussion, begins with direct observations of communicating individuals and searches for the relation of these observations to the existing body of scientific knowledge.There exist many speculations of a literary or philosophical nature that are inter- esting and stimulate the imagination; unless these speculations lead to scientific observations and generalizations, they are not discussed here.Rejecting opinions in favor of facts helps to reduce this vast topic to manageable proportions.The psychological bias restricts the discussion to the effects of language on the behavior of the individual.Psychology is the science of behavior.Our present interest is not in language as one of the social graces, but as a kind of cooperative human behavior."