Sentence meaning

1. Sentence meaning

2.  “SENTENCE MEANING is what a sentence
means, regardless of the context and
situation in which it may be used.”
 [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 269]

3.  “A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning
of the utterance of a declarative sentence
which describes some state of affairs. The
state of affairs typically involves persons or
things referred to by expressions in the
sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence a
speaker typically asserts a proposition.”
 [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 19]

4.  Ex1. The following pair of sentences
expresses the same proposition:
 1(a) Harry took out the garbage.
 1(b) Harry took the garbage out.
 The following pair of sentences expresses
different propositions:
 2(a) Isobel loves Tony.
 2(b) Tony loves Isobel.

5.  “An UTTERANCE is the USE by a particular
speaker, on a particular occasion, for a
particular purpose, of a piece of language,
such as a sequence of sentences, or a single
phrase, or even a single word.” [Hurford and
Heasley, 1984: 15]

6.  utterance /ˈʌtərənts/ noun [ C ]
 something that someone say

7.  “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.” [Hurford and
Heasley, 1984: 16]

8.  Jane: ‘Coffee?’  Would you like some coffee?
 Steve: ‘Sure!’  I’m sure to love it.
 Jane: ‘White?’  Would you like (black coffee or)
white coffee?
 Steve: ‘Black.’  I’d like black coffee, please.
 (One-word utterances) (Well-forme sentences)

9.  Truth value : You can understand well-
formed sentences of your language without
knowing their truth value. Knowing the truth
conditions is not the same as knowing the
actual facts. Rather, the truth conditions, the
meaning, permit you to examine the world
and learn the actual facts … Knowing a
language includes knowing the semantic
rules for combining meanings and the
conditions under which sentences are true or
false.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 146]

10.  “An ANALYTIC sentence is one that is
necessarily TRUE, as a result of the senses of
the words in it.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984:
91-92]

11.  Ex1. All elephants are animals.
 The truth of this sentence follows from the
senses of elephants and animals.
 Ex2. Sam’s wife is married.
 The truth of this sentence follows from the
senses of wife and married.

12.  analytical /ˌæn.əˈlɪt.ɪ.kəl/ adjective ( FORMAL
analytic )
 examining or liking to examine things very
carefully
 He has a very analytical mind .
 Some students have a more analytical
approach to learning.

13.  A contradictory sentence, which is also called
“A CONTRADICTION, is a sentence that is
necessarily FALSE, as a result of the senses of
the words in it. Thus a contradiction is in a
way the opposite of an analytic sentence.”
[Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 93]

14.  Ex1. This animal is a vegetable is a
contradictory sentence; it must be false
because of the senses of animal and
vegetable.

15.  “A SYNTHETIC sentence is one which is NOT
analytic, but may be either true or false,
depending on the way the world is.” [Hurford
and Heasley, 1984: 92]
 Ex1. John is from Ireland.
 There is nothing in the senses of John, Ireland
or from which makes the sentence necessarily
true or false.

16.  Exercise 30: Circle the following sentences A
for analytic, S for synthetic or C for
contradiction, as appropriate.
 1. John’s nine-year-old brother is a boy. A / S
/ C
 2. John’s brother is nine years old. A / S / C
 3. Cats are not vegetables. A / S / C
 4. No cats like to bathe. A / S / C
 5. Cats never live more than 20 years. A / S /
C

17.  6. My watch is slow. A / S / C
 7. My watch is a device for telling the time. A
/ S / C
 8. That girl is her own mother’s mother. A / S
/ C
 9. That boy is his own father’s son. A / S / C
 10. Alice is Ken’s sister. A / S / C
 11. Some typewriters are dusty. A / S / C

18.  12. If it breaks, it breaks. A / S / C
 13. John killed Bill, who remained alive for
many years after. A / S / C
 14. Bachelors cannot form lasting
relationships. A / S / C
 15. Bachelors are lonely. A / S / C
 (bachelor /ˈbætʃ.əl.ər / noun [ C ] a man who
has never married
 He remained a bachelor until he was well into
his 40s. Simon is a confirmed bachelor (= He
is unlikely ever to want to get married) .

19.  Exercise 30:
 1. A; 2. S; 3. A; 4. S; 5. S;
 6. S; 7. A; 8. C; 9. A; 10. S;
 11. S; 12. A; 13. C; 14. S; 15. S

20.  PARAPHRASE is “the relationship between a
word and a combination of other words with
the same meaning. For instance, many people
would agree that loud means something like
can be heard from far away. Ultimately, the
whole project of describing or explaining
word-meanings depends on paraphrase
because we must use words — or other
equivalent symbols —to explain other words.”
[Goddard, 1998: 18]

21.  “When asked what a sentence means, people
usually provide another sentence that has
virtually the same meaning, a paraphrase.”
[Peccei, 1999: 3]

22.  “A sentence which expresses the same
proposition as another sentence is a
paraphrase of that sentence.” [Hurford and
Heasley, 1984: 104]

23.  “Sentences are paraphrases if they have the
same meaning (except possibly for minor
differences in emphases).” [Fromkin and
Rodman, 1993: 132]

24.  (1) The girl kissed the boy.
 (2) The boy was kissed by the girl .
 On this basis the two sentences are
paraphrases of each other.

25.  (1) Change individual words:
 1(a) using synonyms:
 Cats DRINK cream.  Domestic felines
CONSUME the liquid fat of milk.

26.  1(b) using relational antonyms (also called
converses):
 I LENT that book to Jim.  Jim BORROWED
that book from me.

27.  (2) Change sentence structure:
 Cats DRINK cream.  Cream IS DRUNK by
cats.

28.  (3) Change both individual words and
sentence structure:
 Cats DRINK cream.  The liquid fat of milk IS
DRUNK by domestic felines.

29.  “Entailment is a relationship that applies
between two sentences, where the truth of
one implies the truth of the other because of
the meanings of the words involved.”
[Goddard, 1998: 17]

30.  For example, John was killed entails John died.

31.  Exercise 31: The following pairs are paraphrases
of each other. Identify the
 way employed to paraphrase them.
 - Change individual words by using synonyms:
1-7(a-b)
 - Change individual words by using relational
antonyms: 8-10(a-b)
 - Change sentence structure: 11-16(a-b) and
17(a-d)
 - Change both individual words and sentence
structure: 18-25(a-b)

32.  Exercise 32: Use =>to show one-way
entailment and  to show two-way
 entailment in each of the following pairs of
sentences:
 - One-way entailment (=>): 1-5(a-b) and
11-15(a-b)
 - Two-way entailment (): 6-10(a-b) and
16-20(a-b)