ABSTRACT
Semantics is the field of linguistic studies that deals with language as meaning and communication. The International Society for General Semantics, a scholarly organization that came to prominence in the 1940s, was devoted to a philosophy of semantics best known through a classic textbook, Language in Thought and Action, by S. I. Hayakawa. The organization, now called Institute of General Semantics, is still active, publishing a quarterly magazine, Etc. The principles of general semantics encompass the complex relationships diagrammed in figure 4.1, between the external world, human thought, language, and communication.
