新语言学05Chapter 5_semantics.pptVIP

* Sentence and proposition The logical approach to language meaning Logic is mainly concerned with propositions because for logicians, the basic unit of meaning is not sentence, but proposition(命题). Propositions can be defined as descriptions of states of affairs. * To understand the differences between sentence and proposition better, let us look at the following examples: John loves Jane. Jane is loved by John. It is John that loves Jane. It is Jane that is loved by John. The one who is loved by John is Jane. The one who loves Jane is John. All these are grammatically different sentences. But since they describe the same state of affairs, they can be taken as representing the same proposition: JOHN LOVES JANE. * Sentence: express a complete thought; begin with a capital letter and end with a period. Proposition: can be judged to be true or false. 1. A sentence is a proposition. (F) 2. Any proposition is a sentence. (T) 3. Different sentences may express the same proposition. (T) * We may say that compared with proposition, sentence is less abstract. What is important to a sentence is whether it is grammatical or not. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. It is nonsense sentence, but looks grammatical. What counts for a proposition is whether it is true or false. This has nothing to do with the particular language or dialect the proposition happens to be in. * Semantic relationships between sentences Entailment (衍推) Presupposition (预设) Synonymy Inconsistency/contradiction Implicature (言下之意 ) * 1. Entailment (衍推/蕴涵) (A entails B )  A topic closely associated with valid inference is entailment. Entailment refers to the meaning-dependence relation between a pair of sentences. * If A entails B: when A is true, B is necessarily true; when B is false, A is false; when A is false, B may be true or false; when B is true, A may be true or false. (In formula: A→B, -B → -A) 如果A蕴涵B，它们的真值关系是：当A为真时，B