Zellig S. Harris

Language and Information
The Bampton Lectures
Columbia University
1986

The links below enable you to hear Zellig Harris describe his theory of language and information in his own words. These lectures were also published as a book: Language and Information, Columbia University Press, New York, 1998. The complete theory is described in his magnum opus: A Theory of Language and Information: A mathematical approach. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991.

Introduction  Introduction by Robert Goldberger, Columbia Provost
Forward   Forward by Zellig Harris
A formal theory of syntax  
  1. Problems and methods
  2. Procedures yielding the elements
  3. The partial-order constraint
  4. The likelihood constraint
  5. The reduction constraint
  6. Linearization
  7. Properties of the base
  8. Properties of the reduced sentences
Science Sublanguages  
  1. Subsets of sentences
  2. Subject-matter sublanguages
  3. Science sublanguages
  4. Science languages
  5. The uses of science formulas
Information  
  1. How sentences carry information
  2. How words carry meaning
  3. Grammatical meanings
  4. Added structure adds information capacity
  5. Form and content
  6. The structure of information
The Nature of Language  
  1. The structural properties
  2. Change
  3. Stages of development
  4. Processes of development
  5. Language as an evolving system