“A linguistic variable is a variable whose values are words or sentences in a natural or synthetic language.”

Variant: A linguistic variable is defined as a variable whose values are sentences in a natural or artificial language.
Source: 1970s, Outline of a new approach to the analysis of complex systems and decision processes (1973), p. 28

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A linguistic variable is a variable whose values are words or sentences in a natural or synthetic language." by Lotfi A. Zadeh?
Lotfi A. Zadeh photo
Lotfi A. Zadeh 18
Electrical engineer and computer scientist 1921–2017

Related quotes

George Klir photo
James Tobin photo

“In economic surveys of households, many variables have the following characteristics: The variable has a lower, or upper, limit and takes on the limiting value for a substantial number of respondents. For the remaining respondents, the variable takes on a For the remaining respondents, the variable takes on a wide range of values above, or below, the limit.”

James Tobin (1918–2002) American economist

Tobin, James. " Estimation of relationships for limited dependent variables http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cp/p01a/p0117.pdf." Econometrica: journal of the Econometric Society (1958): 24-36.
1950s-60s

Joseph Addison photo

“There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a lady's head-dress.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 98 (22 June 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Before we can proceed to a formal definition of conflict we must examine another concept, that of behavior space. The position of a behavior unit at a moment of time is defined by a set of values (subset, to be technical) of a set of variables that defines the behavior unit. These variables need not be continuous or quantitatively measurable. The different values of a variable must, however, be capable of simple ordering; that is, of any two values it must be possible to say that one is 'after' (higher, lefter, brighter than) the other.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Peace Science Society (International) (1975) Papers - Volumes 24-29. p. 53 summarized: "Boulding begins by explaining what he believes are the four basic concepts to describe a conflict in an analytical way : (1) the party; (2) the behavior space; (3) competition; (4) conflict."
Source: 1960s, Conflict and defense: A general theory, 1962, p. 3

David Crystal photo

“Rather, for all objects and experiences there is a quantity that has an optimum value. Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic. To fall below that value is to be deprived.”

Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist

Source: Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, 1979, p. 56

“To my mind, the expression of divinity is in variety, and the more variable the creation, the more variable the creatures that surround us, botanical and zoological, the more chance we have to learn and to see into life itself, nature itself.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Locus interview (1998)
Context: To my mind, the expression of divinity is in variety, and the more variable the creation, the more variable the creatures that surround us, botanical and zoological, the more chance we have to learn and to see into life itself, nature itself. If we were just human beings, living in a spaceship, with an algae farm to give us food, we would not be moved to learn nearly as many things as we are moved by living on a world, surrounded by all kinds of variety. And when I see that variety being first decimated, and then halved — and I imagine in another hundred years it may be down by 90% and there'll be only 10% of what we had when I was a child — that makes me very sad, and very despairing, because we need variety. We came from that, we were born from that, it's our world, the world in which we became what we have become.

Paul A. Samuelson photo
Carlo Rovelli photo

Related topics