Understand Language: Whispering and the Loss of Meaning in Communication

Exploring the Fragility of Information Transmission

Note: This essay was created with the assistance of ChatGPT, a language model designed to facilitate research and writing.

Author’s Preface

This essay began with a reflection on the simple metaphor of the game of whisper. As children, many of us have played this game, where a message is passed from one person to the next, only for the final version to be a distorted echo of its original form. This seemingly trivial game highlights a fundamental truth about communication: messages change and degrade as they move from one person to another. The essay explores the broader implications of this phenomenon, drawing on concepts from information theory and cultural anthropology to explore how human communication is vulnerable to entropy.

Drawing from sources in cognitive science, linguistics, and cultural studies, the essay touches on how our memory, personal biases, and language structures interact to alter information. The purpose is to look beyond the superficial changes in communication and probe into the scientific reasons behind this transformation.

Introduction

In the age of information, the accuracy of transmitted messages is paramount. Whether we are communicating through a conversation, sending a text, or passing down oral traditions, the essence of what we say can degrade over time and with each retelling. A simple childhood game of whisper—where a message is whispered from one person to the next—vividly illustrates this fragility in human communication. By the time the message has passed through several people, it becomes garbled and often bears little resemblance to the original statement.

In scientific terms, this process of information distortion can be understood through the lens of entropy. Originally a concept from thermodynamics, entropy refers to the gradual movement of systems from order to disorder. When applied to communication, entropy refers to the degradation of a message’s content as it moves from person to person. Just as physical systems naturally tend toward disorder, so too does the information we transmit—whether spoken, written, or recalled.

This essay explores the factors that contribute to this entropy, such as issues with transmission, the limitations of memory, and the natural tendency for language to evolve. It will also consider whether a self-correcting process is possible, or whether entropy is an inevitable part of human communication.

Discussion

Game of Whisper

The game of whisper is a useful metaphor for understanding the process by which messages become distorted as they are passed along. In the game, a simple message is whispered from one participant to the next, and by the time it reaches the last person, it has often changed beyond recognition. This illustrates the inherent fragility of communication. Each person interprets and rephrases the message slightly differently, leading to cumulative distortion.

In communication theory, this phenomenon is not just a playful demonstration but a reflection of how messages in real life are susceptible to subtle changes with each retelling. Carl Shannon’s foundational work on information theory highlights that every act of communication involves a degree of noise—factors that interfere with the clarity of the message (Shannon, 1948). Just as noise in the game of whisper accumulates, so too do misunderstandings, reinterpretations, and errors in real-world communication.

Entropy

The concept of entropy comes from physics, specifically thermodynamics, where it describes the tendency of systems to move from order to disorder. When applied to communication, entropy refers to the gradual loss of information and coherence over time. As messages are passed from one person to another, each retelling introduces errors and variations, which eventually result in significant degradation of the original message.

In communication, this entropy is an inevitable outcome of human limitations—our imperfect memories, our subjective interpretations, and the natural variability of language. Claude Shannon’s theory of information transmission demonstrated that messages sent through any channel are subject to entropy, and the longer the chain of communication, the more likely the message is to degrade (Shannon, 1948).

For instance, oral traditions in pre-literate societies were subject to this kind of entropy. While these societies developed strict memorization techniques to preserve stories, knowledge, and cultural norms, no system is perfect. As noted by Walter Ong in Orality and Literacy, even in societies where oral traditions are central, the retelling of stories is not immune to shifts in meaning over time (Ong, 1982).

Issues with Transmission

Transmission of information, whether spoken or written, is fraught with challenges. Each individual who receives a message must first interpret its meaning through their own unique set of cognitive filters, their world view, memory, perception, and personal biases. Inevitably, this leads to differences in understanding. The person who then passes the message onward does so with these alterations already in place.

Ong’s work emphasizes the complications of transmitting information without written records, noting that in oral cultures, the speaker's ability to repeat a message exactly as heard is limited by their own interpretation and memory (Ong, 1982). Written transmission is not immune either; as texts are copied and recopied, errors creep in, adding further entropy to the message.

Failures: Misunderstanding, Mishearing, Imperfect Memory

Communication is also vulnerable to various failures, including misunderstanding, mishearing, and imperfect memory. A listener may mishear a word, interpret it differently based on their experiences, or simply forget a crucial detail. This can lead to significant changes in the message, which are passed on to the next person.

Consider oral traditions again: while members of these cultures were often trained to memorize large amounts of information, their ability to recall details perfectly was limited by the same cognitive constraints we experience today. This is where misunderstanding, mishearing, or selective memory can lead to a cascading loss of information as it moves through generations (Goody, 1987).

Rewording

Even when a message is understood correctly, people rarely repeat it verbatim. Human beings tend to reword and summarize information, often adding their own interpretations or emphasizing certain aspects while downplaying others. This rewording further contributes to the degradation of the original message.

In the field of linguistics, rewording is a natural consequence of language use. As individuals communicate, they unconsciously adapt the structure of a message to fit their own speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal style. This introduces variability that can alter the meaning of the original message, even if only subtly.

From Inchoate Thought to Word

The degradation of meaning begins even before words are spoken. Thoughts themselves are often inchoate—formless and undefined—and only take shape as they are translated into language. This process of encoding thought into words introduces an initial layer of entropy, as the speaker struggles to find the right words to express complex or abstract ideas.

In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon is well-documented. The process of transforming thought into speech is fraught with opportunities for information loss, as individuals often find it difficult to articulate their ideas clearly and accurately (Ong, 1982). This variability is another source of entropy that affects communication long before the message reaches its audience.

Rote Recitation

Rote recitation is one method cultures have employed to combat the degradation of information. In societies where oral traditions were central, individuals were often trained to memorize important cultural knowledge and stories exactly as they were told. This process, while effective to a degree, is not foolproof. Memory can still fail, and the meaning behind the words may become lost even as the words themselves are preserved.

This form of cultural transmission, while often precise in its verbatim recitation, is still subject to the limitations of human memory and cognitive function. As noted by Goody, even the most disciplined forms of oral transmission cannot entirely prevent changes in meaning or errors over time (Goody, 1987).

Rote Recitation: Cultural Transmission is Imperfect

Even in cultures that emphasize rote memorization, transmission of information is imperfect. While some societies have developed mechanisms to ensure the accurate transmission of important knowledge, such as recitations that are performed in groups to verify accuracy, these systems are not immune to entropy. Small errors in interpretation or memory can still accumulate, leading to subtle changes in meaning over time.

For example, ancient religious texts that have been passed down through oral traditions may retain their original wording but lose their deeper meaning as cultural contexts shift and as words change their meanings. This is a prime example of how cultural transmission, even when designed to preserve information, is never entirely foolproof.

Meaning May Be Lost

As language evolves and cultures change, the meanings of words can become detached from their original contexts. Words and phrases that were once rich with significance can lose their meaning entirely as they are passed down through generations. This is another manifestation of entropy in communication, where the structure of a message remains but its substance fades away.

This phenomenon is evident in the transmission of myths, where stories that were once deeply symbolic or instructive may, over time, become formulaic and lose their connection to the original cultural or historical contexts that gave them meaning.

No One Understands What the Words Mean Anymore

Eventually, as words are passed down through generations, there comes a point where no one remembers what the original message meant. The words remain, but they are hollow, devoid of the meaning they once carried. In some cases, language itself evolves to the point where the original connotations and denotations of words shift so drastically that their original meanings are no longer accessible.

This process can be seen in cultural practices, such as traditional prayers or rituals that are recited without full understanding of their original purpose or significance.

Self-Correcting Process – Is It Possible?

The question remains: can we develop a self-correcting process to prevent or slow the effects of entropy in communication? Some cultures have attempted to address this through systems of verification, such as having multiple people memorize the same information or using written records to supplement oral traditions. In the modern era, technology provides new tools for preserving and correcting information, but even these are not immune to errors or reinterpretations.

While these methods can reduce the rate of information loss, they cannot entirely eliminate it. Human interpretation and memory remain central to communication, and where human cognition is involved, entropy will continue to play a role.

It's Entropy

In the end, the degradation of meaning in communication is an example of entropy at work. Whether through misunderstanding, mishearing, rewording, or memory failure, information inevitably degrades as it is transmitted from person to person. While mechanisms can be put in place to slow this process, the cumulative effects of entropy are unavoidable. Much like the final, distorted whisper in the game, the messages we pass along eventually lose their original form.

Summary

Communication is inherently fragile, subject to the distorting effects of entropy. From the game of whisper to the transmission of cultural knowledge, messages degrade over time due to misinterpretation, rewording, and memory failure. While some cultures have developed mechanisms to slow this process, such as rote recitation or written records, no system can fully prevent the loss of meaning. Ultimately, entropy is a natural consequence of human communication, reflecting the challenges we face in preserving knowledge and understanding across generations.

References

Shannon, C. E. (1948). A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379-423. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x
Shannon’s work laid the foundation for modern information theory, describing how messages degrade as they are transmitted through a communication channel.

Ong, W. J. (1982). Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Methuen. https://monoskop.org/images/d/db/Ong_Walter_J_Orality_and_Literacy_2nd_ed.pdf
Ong explores the distinction between oral and written cultures, highlighting the challenges of preserving information through oral traditions.

Goody, J. (1987). The Interface Between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press. https://www.amazon.ca/Interface-between-Written-Oral/dp/0521337941
Goody examines the ways in which societies transition from oral to written traditions and the implications for cultural transmission and the preservation of knowledge.