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Humphrey van Polanen Petel

The dimensionality of notation

Elements of notation are variables and sentences are sequences of different variables. Both listening and reading are processes, which makes a sentence a stream of variations of a single variable. Thus, a simple sentence is a one-dimensional object, measured along the stream of variation. A sentence with coordinated or subordinated material effectively encodes multiple streams which makes a complex sentence a two-dimensional object with that second dimension measured across the multiple streams. A single symbol does not vary and is therefore a zero-dimensional object. Processes exist in time and the dimensions of notation are therefore abstract dimensions.

Semiotica, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0037-1998
Volume: 2005, 10/2005
Pages: 187 - 197

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