The document discusses the key concepts of utterance, sentence, and proposition in semantics. It defines an utterance as a physical act of saying by a speaker on a particular occasion. A sentence is an abstract linguistic object composed of words arranged according to grammatical rules. A proposition is the aspect of a declarative sentence's meaning that describes a state of affairs in the world that can be true or false. Propositions are central to semantics as the meanings of sentences involve propositions.

2. UTTERANCES: Virtue is its own
• Read the following out loud: reward
Virtue is its own reward
Now read it out loud again.
• The same sentence was involved in the two readings, but
you made two different utterances, i.e. two unique
physical events took place.
• An utterance is an act of saying.
• An utterance has time, place, speaker, language, but no
special form or content.
Virtue is its own
reward

3. DEFINITION
• An UTTERANCE is any stretch of talk, by one
person, before and after which there is
silence on the part of that person.
• An utterance is the USE by a particular
speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece
of language, such as a sequence of
sentences, or a single phrase, or even a
single word.
*P* Virtue is its
Virtue own reward.
That is my
motto. *P*
*pause* Virtue is
*pause*

4. P
16

5. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF UTTERANCE:
• It is spoken
• Physical event. Events are ephemeral i.e. short-lived
• May be grammatical or not
(REMEMBER, utterances do not focus on the
grammatical aspect)
• A piece of language (a single phrase or even a single
word)
• Meaningful or meaningless e.g. “is”
• Identified by a specific time or on particular occasion
• by a specific person (in particular accent).

6. SENTENCES
• Definition (partial): A SENTENCE is neither a
physical event nor a physical object. It
is, conceived abstractly, a string of words put
together by the grammatical rules of a language.
A sentence can be thought of as the IDEAL string
of words behind various realizations in
utterances and inscriptions. Virtue is
its own
reward.
• A sentence has no time or place etc., but
it has a definite linguistic form.
*pause*
Virtue is Virtue is
*pause* its own
Virtu reward.
e

8. CONVENTION IN SEMANTICS
• A book such as this contains no utterances (since books don’t
talk) or sentences (since sentences are abstract ideals).
• In semantics we need to make a careful distinction between
utterances and sentences.

9. A- John announced “Mary’s here”
B- Mary thought how nice John was
Tom: “Mary thought how nice John was”

10. Rule A given sentence always consists of the same
words, and in the same order. Any change in the
words, or in their order, makes a different
sentence, for our purposes.

11. Practice
1) Does it make sense to ask what language (e.g.
English, French, Chinese) a sentence belongs to? Yes /
No
2) Does it make sense to say that an utterance was in a
particular accent ? Yes / No
3) Does it make sense to say that a sentence was in a
particular accent ? Yes / No

12. SENTENCES
• Definition (partial): A SENTENCE is a grammatically
complete string of words expressing a complete thought.
• This excludes any string of words that does not have a
verb in it, as well as other strings.
• A sentence is a complete expression in a language.
• E.g. I would like a cup of coffee is a sentence.
• Coffee, please is not a sentence.
• In the kitchen is not a sentence.
• Please put it in the kitchen is a sentence.

14. • Utterances of non-sentences, e.g. short phrases, or
single words, are used by people in communication all
the time.
• The abstract idea of a sentence is the basis for
understanding even those expressions which are not
sentences.
• The meanings of non-sentences can best be analysed by
considering them to be abbreviations, or incomplete
versions, of whole sentences.
Please put
it in the
In the kitchen
kitchen

16. PROPOSITION:
• Semantics is concerned with the meanings of non-
sentences, such as phrases and incomplete
sentences, just as much as with whole sentences.
• But it is more convenient to begin our analysis with
the case of whole sentences.
• The meanings of whole sentences involve
propositions; the notion of a proposition is central
to semantics.

17. PROPOSITION
• Definition: A PROPOSITION is that part of the
meaning of the utterance of a declarative
sentence which describes some state of affairs.
• A proposition is a claim about the world. It has just the
form of an idea.
• A proposition is a (potential) fact about the
world, which can be true or false.
• e.g. The boy is playing football.
Two plus two makes five.

18. PROPOSITION
• The state of affairs typically involves persons or things
referred to by expressions in the sentence and the
situation or action they are involved in.
• In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically
asserts a proposition.
• E.g. Two plus two makes five.

19. • The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two
sentences express different propositions.
• Thus, if there is any conceivable set of circumstances
in which one sentence is true, while the other is
false, we can be sure that they express different
propositions.

22. • True propositions correspond to facts, in the
ordinary sense of the word fact. False propositions
do not correspond to facts.

23. • Can one entertain propositions in the mind regardless of
whether they are true or false ?
• E.g. What am I doing if I entertain the thought that the moon is
made of green cheese?
• I may believe the proposition that the moon is made of green
cheese 0r I may not believe.
• Or I may wonder whether the moon is made of green cheese is
true ? ( I believe that I do not know but desire to know).
• It may simply have struck me that the moon could be made of
green cheese; that is, I may believe that to be possible. Or I may
be wondering what would happen if the moon were made of
green cheese; for instance, I may wonder that the moon
would collapse.
• Entertain = to admit into the mind; consider
• i.e. by thinking them, or believing them

24. • But only true propositions can be known.
• Not all true beliefs are knowledge, not all unknown beliefs
are false.

26. • Propositions are involved in the meanings of other types of
sentences in addition to the declarative.
• Declarative: The speaker commits himself to the truth of the
corresponding proposition: i.e. he asserts the proposition.
• Interrogative: Is used to ask questions. Questions the truth of
the proposition. Doesn’t assert the truth of the proposition.
• Imperative: Is used to convey orders. Demands carrying out the
proposition. Doesn’t assert the truth of the proposition.

28. • Does it make sense to ask what language (e.g.
English, French, Chinese) a proposition belongs to?
Yes / No
• 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.

29. • One may question whether perfect translation between
languages is ever possible?
• In point of fact, many linguists disagree about this
and it is likely that absolutely perfect translation of the
same proposition from one language to another is
impossible. However, to simplify matters here we shall
assume that in some, possibly very few, cases, perfect
translation IS possible.

30. SUMMARIZING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
THE 3 NOTIONS

32. • It is useful to envisage the kind of family tree relationship
between these notions shown in the diagram.

33. This time I Which path
think I’ll should I take
take the left this time?
path.
Which
?
Which path
This Left path this time?
time Which path
should I take
Left ?
I’ll
I think I’ll take the
take This time?
the
left path
left

34. • A proposition is an abstraction that can be grasped by the mind
of an individual person. In this sense, a proposition is an object
of thought.
Can we equate propositions with thoughts???
• Thoughts are usually held to be private, personal, mental
processes, whereas propositions are public in the sense that
the same proposition is accessible to different persons: different
individuals can grasp the same proposition.
• A proposition is not a process, whereas a thought can be
seen as a process going on in an individual’s mind.
• Problem ??

35. • The word thought may sometimes be used loosely in a way
which includes the notion of a proposition.
• For instance, one may say, ‘The same thought came into both our
heads at the same time.’ In this case, the word thought is being
used in a sense quite like that of the word proposition.
• The relationship between:
• - mental processes (e.g. thoughts),
• - abstract semantic entities (e.g. propositions), -
• - linguistic entities (e.g. sentences),
• - and actions (e.g. utterances)
• is problematic and complicated.

36. SOURCES:
• Semantics: A Coursebook by JAMES R. HURFORD
, RENDAN HEASLEY, MICHAEL B. SMITH
• An Introduction to Semantics by Muhammad Ali Alkhuli
• Introduction to on to General Linguistics: Semantics 0 by
Prof. Jaeger, Sam Featherston
• "I Wish I Had Never Existed“ by Curtis Brown
• ENGLISH LEARNING
• SEMANTIC
• Epistemology ( Wikipedia)