The diversity and complexity of twentieth-century modes of
thought, together with the clear and pressing need for a more
sensitive and comprehensive understanding of how the exchange
of attitudes, information, and ideas takes place, has made the
analvsis of meanings and an examination of the processes by which
they are communicated an important focus of interest for many
nominally disparate fields of inquiry. Philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, to name some of those most directly involved, have all become concerned with the problem of meaning:
the variety of meanings, their significance and epistemological
status, their interrelationships, and manner of communication.
Other fields, such as economics, political science, various branches
of the humanities, and even the natural sciences, have likewise
directed attention to these problems