Speed words

Gordon Alexander Speedie

American Documentation, 1960, vol. 11, issue 1, 23-31

Abstract: “Speed Words” uses an analogy between the psychomotive force of the dialectic field and the electromotive force of the magnetic field to formulate a conjecture which might be the subject of investigation. Using the term, “meaning time,” which is explained, the paper introduces the time dimension as a function of word value. Accepted laws of an electric system are used to suggest parallel laws for the dialectic system. As a result, understanding speed of words is expressed by an equation WS = MT x WF, where WS is the relative speed of a word in terms of its understandability, MT is the meaning time in years of word use, and WF is the word frequency per million words used by a stated audience. Experimental use of this equation and method suggests that there may be as much meaning in a few dozen stable words, of greater meaning age than numbers, as there is in a few dozen digits in the decimal system — used as the basis of science and mathematics. This could lead to revealing an even more basic or universal language. If these points can be stressed, speed words are then only part of a larger concept. There could be a field of thought above, and yet related, to known physical fields. If such a field is postulated and searched for its analogical equivalents, language could, in a mean sense, become the thought field constant, the relationship of ideas, field units; time, the field denominator.

Date: 1960
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