If it were possible to recognize idea building blocks irrespective of the words used to evoke them, these building blocks might be considered the elements of a syntax of notions. Communication could then be carried out by relaying these notions by means of agreed-upon symbols. Since these symbols would be independent of style and language, they would help to overcome language barriers. A symbol of this kind would be most useful in facilitating the process of information recognition by automatic means. The very nature of free-style renderings of information seems to preclude any system based on precise relationships and values, such as has been developed in the field of mathematics. Only by treatment of this problem as a statistical proposition is a systematic approach possible. The objectives of a system based on this proposition would be first to transform information into arrays of normalized idea building blocks and then to discover similarities in the respective building-block patterns of these arrays by means of a statistical analysis. It could be reasonably assumed that the more closely two arrays are matched, the greater the probability that the records they represent contain similar information.