A Sentence is an ideal string of words formed in accordance with the grammatical rules of a language As a unit of grammar it is higher than the clause just as the clause is higher than the phrase and the phrase is higher than the word ID: 1002628
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1. SOME BASIC CONCEPTS IN SEMANTICS
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5. A Sentence is an ideal string of words formed in accordance with the grammatical rules of a language. As a unit of grammar, it is higher than the clause, just as the clause is higher than the phrase and the phrase is higher than the word.
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7. any stretch of language spoken by a person at a certain time and place and on a certain occasion. Like a sentence, it is by definition a meaningful stretch of language. A meaningless sequence of sounds cannot be considered an utterance.
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9. A PROPOSITION IS THE SEMANTIC CONTENT OF A SIMPLE DECLARATIVE SENTENCE. JUST AS THE SENTENCE IS ESSENTIALLY A GRAMMATICAL CONCEPT, THE PROPOSITION IS ESSENTIALLY A SEMANTIC CONCEPT.
10. EXAMPLES OF PROPOSITIONS:JOHN IS PLAYING FOOTBALL.TWO PLUS TWO MAKES FOUR.
11. Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.I’m cold / j’ai froid / اشعر بالبرد
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13. the differences between a sentence and an utterance: 1. An utterance need not be in the form of a complete sentence having a clearly identifiable subject and a clearly identifiable verb. It may well be in the form of only a word (YES/ HELLO/ THANKS) or a phrase (AT SEVEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING) or a clause operating as a full sentence (AFTER I HAD FINISHED MY WORK).
14. 2. An utterance need not be in the form of a sentence or its part. It may be in the form of a number of sentences in a sequence.
15. 3. An utterance is necessarily a physical event. Just as a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with an end – punctuation mark, an utterance is preceded and followed by silence.4. If a stretch of language is uttered twice, it will be two utterances and not one. If it is uttered three times, it will be three utterances. An utterance is a physical event and not only a grammatical structure.
16. 5. An utterance can be slow or fast, faint or loud. This cannot be applied on sentences. 6. Accent and voice quality can be the features of utterances only; they cannot be the features of sentences.
17. 7. WE CAN SPEAK OF THE TIME AND PLACE OF AN UTTERANCE , NOT OF A SENTENCE
18. the differences between a sentence and a proposition:1. A sentence is a string of words in a certain order. If we change the order of words, it becomes another sentence. But if the change in the word order means no change in the meaning of that sentence and the sentence remains a simple declarative sentence, it continues to be the same proposition.
19. (A) HE GAVE AWAY THE BOOKS.(B) HE GAVE THE BOOKS AWAY.(C) HE LOOKED UP THAT WORD IN THE DICTIONARY.(D) HE LOOKED THAT WORD UP IN THE DICTIONARY.TWO DIFFERENT SENTENCES WHOSE MEANING IS EXACTLY THE SAME. THEY CAN BE TREATED AS TWO VARIENTS OF THE SAME PROPOSITION, NOT TWO DIFFERENT PROPOSITIONS. WE CAN SAY THAT THE SAME PROPOSITION CAN BE EXPRESSED BY DIFFERENT SENTENCES.
20. 2. A change in sentence elements results in the formation of another sentence but if the meaning remains the same, it continues to be the same proposition in spite of the changes in the sentence structure.
21. (A) JOHN ENVIES JIM.(B) JOHN IS ENVIOUS OF JIM.(C) OUR NEIGHBOUR PASSED AWAY LAST WEEK.(D) OUR NEIGHBOUR DIED LAST WEEK.
22. 3. A change in the voice of a sentence makes it another sentence but a change in the voice of a simple declarative sentence does not make it another proposition.
23. (A) JOHN GAVE MARY A BOOK.(B) MARY WAS GIVEN A BOOK BY JOHN.(C) I WROTE THIS NOVEL.(D) THIS NOVEL WAS WRITTEN BY ME.AS THE PROPOSITIONAL CONTENT OF EACH PAIR OF THESE SENTENCES IS THE SAME, WE CAN CALL EACH PAIR TWO VARIENTS OF THE SAME PROPOSITION BUT NOT EXAMPLES OF TWO DIFFERENT PROPOSITIONS.
24. PROPOSITIONS CAN BR REGARDED AS: ABSTRACT SEMANTIC ENTITIESSENTENCES CAN BR REGARDED AS: LINGUISTIC / GRAMMATICAL ENTITIESUTTERANCES CAN BR REGARDED AS: ACTIONS
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