Theory of Language and Communication

Formal Abstract

This document presents a formal, process-based theory of language, information, and dynamic meaning systems. Communication, cognition, identity, legitimacy, and truth are treated not as static entities but as temporally constituted processes sustained through repetition, coupling, and feedback within distributed fields. A minimal axiom set grounded in acts, timing, coupling, recursion, variation, and emergent order is used to derive higher-order phenomena rather than assuming them as primitives.

From these foundations, the theory derives conditions under which systems persist, adapt, destabilise, or collapse. Coherence is shown to be an emergent regime rather than an imposed state; bounded variation is a requirement for viability; increasing order entails increasing vulnerability; and stability is always provisional. Semantics, truth, and legitimacy function as regulatory stabilisations that arise after patterned repetition, not as ontological grounds. Control is defined as temporal modulation of system variables rather than content manipulation, and observation and governance are treated as reflexive subsystems embedded within the same dynamics they influence.

The scope of the theory extends to all systems that remember themselves through repetition, including language, cognition, institutions, markets, culture, science, and technology. Pathologies such as disinformation, authoritarian drift, and legitimacy collapse are characterised by dynamic signatures of recursion, variation loss, coupling asymmetry, and pattern drift rather than by intent or content. What follows is the full formal framework derived from these principles.


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A GENERAL THEORY OF INFORMATION, LANGUAGE, AND DYNAMIC MEANING SYSTEMS
(Unified Ontology, Dynamics, and Control Framework)


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I. ONTOLOGICAL FOUNDATION

1. Process over substance
Language, information, meaning, belief, identity, legitimacy, and truth do not exist as static entities. They exist only as ongoing processes sustained through repetition and interaction. Apparent stability is an effect of continued activity, not an underlying thing.


2. Time is constitutive
These processes are not situated in time as independent objects. They are constituted by time. Delay, rhythm, recurrence, synchrony, and relative ordering are structural variables of the system.


3. Field ontology
Any communicative or cognitive system is a distributed field of interacting processes. Global properties emerge from local interactions. There is no privileged centre and no external vantage point.


4. No semantic primitives
Truth, falsity, intent, reference, ideology, and belief are not foundational elements. They are secondary stabilisation constructs arising from persistent patterned activity.




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II. FUNDAMENTAL ENTITIES

The theory admits six irreducible components, understood as modelling primitives rather than metaphysical substances:

1. Acts
Any repeatable expressive or cognitive event: utterances, symbols, gestures, algorithmic outputs, memories, internal thoughts.


2. Relative timing (phase)
The position of an act within a recurring pattern of interaction. Phase denotes relative temporal relation, not periodic motion.


3. Coupling
The degree and direction by which one act influences the probability or form of subsequent acts.


4. Feedback (recursion)
The extent to which present activity depends on prior activity generated by the system itself.


5. Variation (entropy)
An index of diversity and unpredictability in system activity, treated as a functional measure rather than a fixed formalism.


6. Order parameters
Macro-level indices summarising collective behaviour such as alignment, concentration, or shared orientation.



All higher-order phenomena are compositional.


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III. SYSTEM DEFINITION

A language or information system is a recursive, temporally coupled field of activity whose identity emerges from the persistence of patterned interaction.

Such a system has no fixed boundary, no static structure, and no final equilibrium. It exists only while activity continues.


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IV. STATE DESCRIPTION

Micro-level description
Each act may be characterised by its relative timing, recurrence rate, salience, coupling relations, and relational position within the field.

Macro-level description
The system as a whole may be described using indices such as degree of alignment or coherence, shared orientation or dominant patterning, strength of recursion, and distribution of variation.

These indices define the system’s operating regime.


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V. CORE DYNAMICS

1. Persistence through feedback
Patterns persist when activity feeds back into itself. What is repeatedly reinforced becomes real to the system. Identity is historical, contingent, and structurally reinforced.


2. Emergent coherence
Alignment is not imposed by default. It emerges when coupling and feedback reach sufficient strength. Low alignment produces incoherence; excessive alignment produces rigidity.


3. Variation as a condition of viability
Variation is not error. Systems require bounded diversity to adapt. Too little variation leads to brittleness; too much leads to dissolution. Viable systems operate within intermediate bounds.


4. Order and vulnerability
As alignment and recursion increase, sensitivity to internal disturbance increases. Order enhances performance while reducing tolerance for error. Stability and fragility are inseparable.




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VI. MEANING AND SEMANTICS

Meaning is not contained in symbols.

Meaning is the stabilised relational pattern that emerges when certain acts repeatedly co-occur within a field.

Semantics is distributed, probabilistic, historically conditioned, and inseparable from use. Reference is an approximation produced by coherence rather than a foundational relation.


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VII. TRUTH, FALSITY, AND LEGITIMACY

Truth and falsity function as regulatory distinctions that constrain variation, stabilise feedback, and support persistence. They are tools systems use to maintain coherence, not mirrors of independent reality.

Legitimacy is the persistence of coordinated expectations across time. When shared patterns of timing, recognition, and response degrade, legitimacy collapses regardless of formal correctness.


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VIII. DISRUPTION AND PATHOLOGY

Systemic disruption occurs when recursion becomes self-sealing, variation collapses or becomes unbounded, coupling becomes highly asymmetric, or patterns drift without external correction.

Disinformation is a special case in which feedback is redirected toward a maladaptive attractor that appears endogenous to the system.


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IX. DIAGNOSTIC SIGNATURES

Systems are diagnosed by dynamic signatures rather than message content, including increasing dependence on prior internal outputs, shrinking diversity of activity, misalignment between local and global patterns, and concentration of influence.

These indicators apply across domains.


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X. CONTROL AND SHAPING

Control does not operate primarily on semantic content. It operates on timing, repetition, amplification, delay, coupling relations, and distribution of variation. Content-level interventions function by altering these variables indirectly.

The objective of intervention is to maintain the system within viable bounds of alignment, recursion, and variation.


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XI. TEMPORAL STRUCTURE

System behaviour unfolds across multiple time scales. Short scales govern coupling and latency; intermediate scales govern attention and persistence; long scales govern structural memory and drift.

Effective shaping must operate at the system’s dominant time constants.


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XII. REFLEXIVITY AND GOVERNANCE

Observers and governors are embedded within the systems they address. Any act of description or regulation alters coupling and feedback. There is no neutral vantage point.

Governance is a reflexive process requiring continuous adjustment. Ethical constraints function as limits on modulation intensity rather than static rules.


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XIII. SCOPE

This framework applies to any system that persists by remembering itself through repetition, including language, cognition, institutions, markets, science, culture, technology, and identity.

Wherever patterned activity sustains itself, these dynamics apply.


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XIV. MINIMAL COMPRESSION

Systems persist by repeating patterns.
Repetition generates identity.
Identity produces alignment.
Alignment produces vulnerability.
Variation enables adaptation.
Meaning is a stabilised relation.
Control is temporal modulation.
Stability is provisional.