THINK
Cognitive Evaluation and Communication
2. What is the difference between semantics and general semantics?
Semantics typically refers to the field of study that is concerned primarily with how symbols (language) relate to their referents (the objects to which they refer) in the 'real' non-verbal world. Included in this study would be the consistency of words to their referents as well as the logical validity of statements.
General Semantics goes beyond semantics in that it includes the at-the-moment responses and interactions of the individual humans who participate in a communicative process. General Semantics truly represents an interdisciplinary methodology that invokes not only semantics but linguistics, grammar, behavioral sciences, physiology, etc. Alfred Korzybski explained that “in revising semantics, I am adding the word General, and also have enlarged the meaning in the sense that it turns out to be a general theory of values; evaluation, etc. In our seminars we investigate the factors of evaluation."
3. Is General Semantics similar to any other disciplines or practices with which I might be familiar?
Because general semantics pertains to matters of general evaluation, one can make a case that it 'belongs1 in any (or every) discipline. However, since it entered university classrooms in the 1930’ s, it has been taught primarily in the Departments of Speech, English, Language Arts, Communication or Journalism. It has roots in psychology, biology, mathematics, anthropology, sociology, education and other social science and scientific fields. If you have interest in self-improvement, self-help, critical thinking, critical inquiry, communication theory, educational psychology or even science fiction, you probably have run across some overlap with general semantics. Specifically, Korzybski's General Semantics was a significant influence in:
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Dr. Albert Ellis's Rational-
psychotherapy; |
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Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) as first written about by Richard Bandler
and John Grinder; |
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Speech and Language education through educators such as S. I. Hayakawa
(San Francisco State), Wendell Johnson (U. of Iowa), Irving J. Lee (Northwestern), Elwood Murray (Denver U.), and dozens of their successors; |
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The science fiction writings of Robert A. Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt.
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