A 1957 Theory of Meaning, Hiding in a Language Model

Meaning, Osgood found, is mostly three numbers. — paraphrasing The Measurement of Meaning (Osgood, Suci & Tannenbaum, 1957) Charles E. Osgood (1916–1991), who set out to measure meaning with paper rating scales. Photo via PeoplePill. In 1957, the psychologist Charles Osgood handed people a word— tornado , mother , nuclear —and a stack of rating scales: good–bad , strong–weak , fast–slow , hot–cold…