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29 views

Chap 2

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4fvkhdrwb2
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LESSONS 2: SENTENCES, UTTERANCES, AND PROPOSITIONS

 How many types of sentences structurally?


There are 4 types of sentences based on their structures:
 Simple sentence – it has a single independent clause (a single verb) and does not depend on
other clauses.
E.g. I love mangoes very much / He is my brother.
 Compound sentence – it consists of more than one independent clause with no dependent
clauses. Conjunctions or linkers are used to connect the clause.
E.g. Your pen is too cheap, and my pen is so tiny / You are late, but arrived in time
 Complex sentence – it differs from a compound sentence and also has more than one clause but
the difference is that one of the clauses must be an independent clause and the other should be a
dependent clause.
E.g. This room is very hot, therefore I switched on the fan / although she was happy, she got a divorce
from her husband
 Compound-complex sentence – there is a combination of complex sentences and compound
sentences and this combination makes a single sentence. Such sentences contain at least 2
independent clauses and 1 dependent clause.
E.g. Henry forgot her sister’s birthday, so she called her for an excuse when she finally remembered.
How many types of sentences functionally?
There are 4 types of sentences based on their functions:
 Declarative sentence (assertive sentence) – it simply contains information, fact, opinion, a
statement, or describes things. Such sentences declare something and all declarative sentences
end with a period/full stop.
E.g. She is a doctor. (statement) / I am feeling hungry. (feeling) / Chair has 4 legs. (describing)
 Imperative sentence – it is used to make a request or to give a piece of advice, direction, or a
command. Imperative sentences are also known as a jussive or a directive. Depending upon its
function, imperative sentences may end with an exclamation mark or a full stop.
E.g. Please come here. / Open the door. / Sit down.
 Interrogative sentence – we ask a question and must end with a question mark.
E.g. What is your name? / Do you know about my ped pen? / Why are you late?
 Exclamatory sentence – it conveys strong emotion. These emotions can be sorrow, wonder,
happiness, or anger. Such sentences end with exclamation marks.
E.g. What a lovely weather! / Oh my god!
UTTERANCE
It 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, a single phrase, or even a single word.
Characteristics of an utterance:
 It is spoken
 There is silence before and after an utterance
 It is a physical event (which is short-lived or ephemeral)
 It may be grammatical or not
 It is a piece of language (can be a single phrase/word)
 It can be meaningful or meaningless.
 It is identified by a specific time or on a particular occasion
 It is produced by a specific person (in a particular accent)

SENTENCE
A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object.
It is, conceived (partial) 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.
UTTERANCE vs. SENTENCE
The same sentence was involved in the two readings, but you made two different utterances, i.e. two
unique physical events took place.
SENTENCE UTTERANCE
A group of words that convey a complete A natural unit of speech bounded by breaths or
meaning pauses, thus usually not conveying a complete
meaning
Exists in both spoken and written form Exists only in the spoken form
The basic structure in semantics The smallest unit of speech
The semantic structure varies according to the Does not have a specific semantic structure since
language. However, a sentence basically has a even a burp or a pause is categorized as an
subject, a verb, and an object. utterance.

The distinction between sentence & utterance is crucial to both semantics & pragmatics:
A sentence is an abstract theoretical entity defined within a theory of grammar
An utterance is the issuance of a sentence.
Utterances of non-sentence:
 E.g. Short phrases or single words, are used by people in communication all the time.
People do not converse wholly in well-formed sentences.

CONVENTION ON SEMANTICS
‘Help’ represents an utterance.
‘The steeples have been struck by lightning’ represents an utterance
The steeples have been struck by lightning represents a sentence
John represents a word conceived as part of a sentence
 We adopt the convention that anything written between single quotation marks represents an
utterance, and anything italicized represents a sentence or (similarly abstract) part of a sentence, such
as a phrase of a word.
We have defined a sentence as a string of words.
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.
E.g.:
The different sentences: Helen rolled up the carpet
Helen rolled up the carpet up
The same sentence: Sincerity may frighten the boy
Sincerity may frighten the boy
It would make sense to say that an utterance was in a particular accent.
It would not make strict sense to say that a sentence was in a particular accent, because a sentence
itself is only associated with phonetic characteristics such as accent and voice quality through a
speaker’s act of uttering it.
Accent & voice quality belong strictly to the utterance, not to the sentence uttered.
Food for thought:
A sentence is a grammatically complete string of words expressing complete though:
 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

PROPOSITION
The part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence that 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
The following pair of sentences expresses the same proposition:
(a) Peter gave Dais a kiss
(b) Daisy was given a kiss by Peter
The following pair of sentences expresses the same proposition:
(a) George dances with Ethel
(b) George didn’t dance with Ethel

Food for thought


(a) Dr Findlay killed Janet
(b) Dr Findlay caused Janet to die
The 2 sentences do not express the same proposition:
 Killed somebody in (a) [+intentionally]
 Caused somebody to die in (2) implies [+accidentally]
The semantic feature [±intention] is crucial in distinguishing the different propositions in (1-2).
Advanced practice: explain why the two members of each of the following pairs of sentences do not
share the same proposition
1. (a) John is the parent of James
(b) James is the parent of John
2. (a) The hunter but the lion
(b) The lion but the hunter
3. (a) The fly was on the wall
(b) The wall was under the fly

PROPOSITION vs. SENTENCE


Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language.
Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proportion,

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