SEMANTIC NOISE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2998 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
1. “Any feature of the message that reduces the sharpness of the selective operation on the required subspace.” (D. Mac KAY, 1969, p.74)
This somewhat abstract formulation means that, as any question specifies an area in which required information helps to make meaning more precise, anything that confuses or oscures that information is “noise” in a sense akin to the perturbating noise in a physical channel of communication.
Semantic noise, however, is different from irrelevant information.
2. “Ambiguity in the denotation or connotation of a message” (R.L. ACKOFF and F.E. EMERY, 1972, p.182).
These authors state: “A message may be misinterpreted — that is, B responds to the wrong thing — and still produces the type of response intended” (Ibid).
Misinterpretation is the result either of sloppy semantics from the sender (who does not consider the possibility of ambiguity inherent to the situation) or imprecision in the code itself.
In some critical cases, the message cannot be interpreted if the situation is not well known.