The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” - True, false or meaningless

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12969080
AutoresEsa Itkonen (0009-0000-4433-9119, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen7
Número2
Páginas21-50
Fecha de publicación2017-03-15
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPublic Journal of Semiotics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1918-9907 • E-ISSN: 1918-9907
EditorialPublic Journal of Semiotics, Lund University (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.37693/pjos.2016.7.16454
OpenAlexW2605896472
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas10

The slogan in the title of this article is meaningless in a context where the notion of “sum” does not apply. It is false in a context where the whole is equal to (or indistinguishable from) the sum of its parts. Having only a metaphorical meaning, it is neither clearly true nor clearly false in a context where no numerical value can be assigned to this relation of magnitude (which is typically the case in linguistics). In this article, however, a unit of measurement is devised which makes it possible to decide whether a linguistic whole is greater or smaller than the sum of its parts. In the former case the slogan is true whereas in the latter case it is, once again, false

Context (archaeology · Contrast (vision · Data mining · Epistemology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Political science · Relation (database · Slogan · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistic research and analysis · linguistics and terminology studies · Mathematics · Philosophy · Artificial Intelligence