A metalanguage for systematic research on human communication via natural language

Abstract

Systematic research on human communication will be enhanced by access to a metalanguage, which analyzes natural language texts rapidly and accurately into their structural counterparts. A rationale for constructing the metalanguage is provided in the context of a long-range program of research, and illustrated by reference to an existing Computer-Assisted Language Analysis System (CALAS) for use with English language texts. Such a metalanguage has immediate practical applications. Its underlying rationale also may be extended to encompass the study of policy-oriented communications among persons or groups within or across human cultures.

Language in Psychotherapy

“…Based on our theory of meaning in language and prior work, we constructed a model of the psychological treatment process (Meara & Patton, 1984;Patton et al, 1977;Pepinsky, 1974;Pepinsky, 1984;Pepinsky & DeStefano, 1983;Rush et al, 1974). In the model, psychological treatment is construed as a process of social influence that is interactively persuasive.…”

“…Convergence (Pepinsky & Karst, 1964) and tracking between the participants in the similar frequency of their use of grammatical structures (Bieber, 1978;Edwards, 1978;May, 1977;Meara et al, 1981;Oster, 1979); 2. counselor and client preference for the same discussion topics (Patton, 1969); 3. the probability that one participant's remarks will follow, or sequence, the topic of the other participant's remarks (Friedlander & Phillips, 1984); and 4. the extent to which one or both participants find it necessary to comment or otherwise talk about their talk (Garfinkel & Sacks, 1971;Patton, 1984). In this case, comments on the conversation Pepinsky, 1974;d. Pepinsky & DeStefano, 1983;Rush et a/., 1974). itself are attempts to remedy the indefiniteness or alter the sense of each other's talk, that is, attempts to establish common understanding.…”

“…Units of measure seem particularly difficult to specify when investigating something like the discourse of counseling or other forms of spoken interaction in natural settings. One or more of several levels of analysis may be appropriate (d. Pepinsky, 1974). As we struggled with our conceptualizations about counseling, we also struggled with problems related to choosing appropriate units of measure.…”

“…Although our assumptions, conceptual work, and method have been shaped by work in several areas such a linguistics, psychology, and sociology, the research itself is a direct development from theorizing and earlier empirical investigations conducted by Pepin sky and his colleagues (d. Pepinsky, 1970;Pepinsky & Karst, 1964;Pepinsky & Patton, 1971). This early work developed an interactive definition of psychological treatment (Pepinsky & Patton, 1971) which subsequently became the basis for a still developing model of counselor-client interaction and change Pepinsky, 1974Pepinsky, , 1984Pepinsky & DeStefano, 1983;Rush, Pepinsky, Landry, Meara, Strong, Valley, & Young, 1974). Our problem in this chapter is, therefore/to illustrate how the analysis of natural language in counseling and psychotherapy promotes our understanding of the psychological treatment process.…”

1973 student paper award. An alogorithm for generating structural surrogates of english text

“…Pepinsky has described three levels in the study of languages which he calls, collectively, the "schemapiric view" of language study (26). These three levels are the empirical, the analytical and the formal (see Fig.…”