![[hYngT2p4FBkYJJHKbZ3uad-970-80.jpg]] > As Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge". Imagination is responsible for creation of initial vision and we need a language which can easily interpret whole process from first idea, through vision into realistic concept and translate it into cloud service execution language. Management and execution of businesses is not possible without appropriate knowledge, but more striking is that new markets and industry leaderships can't emerge in separation from imagination and vision. Because language is ubiquitous and the majority of it is spoken, there is an expectation that ‘language’ means the spoken word. Words are powerful without doubt, and are conceptually necessary. However, verbal languages evolved from earlier pictorial forms. They naturally developed from pictographic denotation and ideographic symbols [7]. > To the human mind, symbols are cultural representations of reality and only humans can use symbols to think reflectively. These symbols emerge when a perception is separated from its action and represents a unique interpretation of semantics and as Wittgenstein stated “semantics is considered as a property of language, whereas meaning is often defined in terms of use". The clean language technique has to be used in a form of cloud #symbolic modeling, which also works with already known symbols and metaphors. Two great cognitive scientists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) stated: "the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another". Today we recognize three major types of metaphors: - Conceptual Metaphor - Cognitive Metaphor - Visual Metaphor In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another, for example, understanding quantity in terms of directionality. Conceptual metaphors are used very often to understand theories and models. A conceptual metaphor uses one idea and links it to another to better understand something. For example, the conceptual metaphor of viewing communication as a conduit is one large theory explained with a metaphor. So not only is our everyday communication shaped by the language of conceptual metaphors, but so is the very way we understand scholarly theories [2]. --- The #semiotic process of differentiation, going from a simple overview into a complex and detailed result, can be found in the employment of visual metaphors. Gombrich (1963), argues that images and symbols have meaning and appear in different forms. They function as visual codes or emblems and evoke a sense of artistic and cultural value. Such visual metaphors require a cultural context for interpretation. He gives the example of the traffic lights in which the color red is coded to signal "stop" and green "go" [4]. At the center of his theory is the notion of "schemata" - the idea that the artist "begins not with his visual impression but with his idea or concept" and that the artist adjusts this idea to fit, as well as it can, the object, landscape, or person before him or her [3]. Gombrich calls this theory "making and matching" which is essentially our approach for Ecosystem Language (CIEL) - Making symbols (as conceptual art) close to the real objects and Match it with the real meaning for particular purpose (in dependency of [[World spheres]] - social, business, life and machines [6]). Gavriel Salomon notes in his book "Interaction of media, cognition and learning" major gaps between verbal and visual thinking and substantially differentiate between world of visual metaphors and world of verbal metaphors (print culture world). He further expanded this study in section "Print cultures versus oral cultures" where the analytical mode (print culture) is sequential and highlights rationalism and the use of logic, whereas the rationalism mode (oral culture) is concerned with the emotive or affective aspects of a simultaneous presentation of imagery. This leads to conclusion that **visual metaphors **provide a dominant mode of **information processing** thus it's more appropriate to **use symbols in information systems**, their interfaces and use them as a primary language in order to express objects, their functions and relationships. This is also a main approach of CIEL and definition of two symbolic languages: CURN - Cloud User Requirements Notation and CCNL - Conceptual Cloud Notation Language. --- In addition to this, Michael Reddy observes that our language is structured roughly by the following complex metaphor (expansion of conduit metaphor): - IDEAS (Of MEANINGS) ARE OBJECTS - LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS - COMMUNICATION IS SENDING The speaker puts ideas (objects) into words (containers) and sends them (along a conduit) to a bearer who takes the ideas/objects out of the word/containers [8]. In our case, we convert the ideas into symbols and symbolic schemas and send them to audience which recognizes symbols based on shared cultural rationalism. ![[Pasted image 20230709113624.png|Figure 1: Symbols are devices]] **Symbols are devices** by which ideas are transmitted between people sharing a common culture. Every society has evolved a symbol system that reflects a specific cultural logic; and every symbolism functions to communicate information between members of the culture in much the same way as, but more subtly than, conventional language. Symbols tend to appear in clusters and to depend on one another for their accretion of meaning and value [7]. Symbolic table (alphabet) is the most crucial part of symbolic communication. This table represents mutual agreement on ideas of meanings, represented by symbols and described by the language of particular culture (social, business, machine and life worlds). These symbols are unique and object oriented. They mustn't be emotionally oriented. As an example, a smile is not a practical symbol (emoticons) – it does not enable eating or running or looking (function representation); it is primarily communicative and are not unique for conceptual and contextual modeling purposes. --- Language, or naming, has the power to define what is normal and abnormal and it can be inclusive and exclusive. We want to transfer this power to Ecosystem Language family of symbolic languages and allow business users, social evangelists, enterprise architects and High level Managers to re-articulate their needs, define new concepts, their visions and transfer complex systems and their interactions into world of abstraction by **symbolic languages**. This abstractions enables discussions between different groups of audiences are easily transferable into design tools and knowledge systems. ## References [1] G. Lakoff and M. Johnson; Metaphors We Live By; ISBN 978-0226468013 [2] Wikipedia - The Definitions [3] E.H. Gombrich; Art and Illusion; ISBN 978-0691070001 [4] Robert N. St. Clair; Visual Metaphor, Cultural Knowledge and the New Rhetoric; 2000 [5] G. Salomon; Interaction of media, cognition and learning; ISBN 0805815457 [6] V. Baranek and M. Skilton; World and [[System Spheres]]; 01/2011 [7] N. Barden and Tina K. Wilimas; Words and Symbols - Language and Communication in Therapy; ISBN 9780335213610 [8] M. Reddy; The Conduit Metaphor; Cambridge University Press ## Related to [[InfoSymbolism - Storage Guidance]] [[InfoSymbolism - The Missing Piece]] [[InfoSymbolism is the universal language]] [[MetaSymbols or how to implement InfoSymbolism]]