ABSTRACT
General semantics, as an area of study, focuses upon the relationship between the language people use and how they think and behave. In a very direct sense, general semantics is, in its entirety, a model of and a prescription for the process of human communication. The whole structure of general semantics has been built upon a single basic assumption: that reality is to be conceived of as a process. This basic notion of modem science postulated that the universe is in a constant state of motion, its elements in a perpetual state of change and changing relationships. The chapter provides the process of abstracting is central to an understanding of general semantics. The core of general-semantics theory and the study of language and behavior lie at the conceptual interface of language and reality—of the “world of words” and the “world of not-words.” The chapter focuses on comparisons between the structure of reality and the structure of language.
