TABLE OF CONTENTS The results of measurement are expressed in symbols, defined as letters, numbers, marks or other characters used to represent something . We examine the notion of symbol sets, symbol systems and symbol system types. All these belong firmly in the domain of representation, and we use them to signify some aspect of the referent to which we need to draw attention.
The notion of set is well established and has already been defined in chapter 2. We may now come to the obvious definition:
A symbol set may have well established elements, such as the character set of a keyboard, the set of letters of the English alphabet or the set of Roman numerals. Elements may also be stipulated locally by definition, such as the set of the six smallest prime numbers , or by enumeration, such as {11, 2, 5, 7, 13, 3}, or the list of the valid postal codes of the United Kingdom.
We know that a system is a set of elements together with a set of relations over those elements. Forming a symbol system will need a symbol set, together with a set of relations over the symbols. This leads to the definition:
For example, we can turn the symbol set of the six smallest...
