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 analysis 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.