Linguistic Analysis in the Global Evolution of Information

Abstract

Busa begins this article by describing speech as tripartite in composition and he then turns to the increasing role of the computer in linguistic research. The sense of horror that this has occasioned among some humanists is powerfully evoked by the analogy of a bulldozer running amok on the meadow of humanism. He writes how the “men involved in automation” have asked humanists important questions whose answers are demanded by “economic facts”. Humanists have been unable to answer them due to their inadequate knowledge of language.