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Sentence, Utterance, and Proposition

An utterance is any stretch of talk by one person before and after silence. A sentence is an abstract string of words constructed by grammatical rules, which may be realized in different utterances. Not all utterances express full sentences; they can be parts of sentences like phrases or words. A proposition describes a state of affairs involving things or people referred to in a declarative sentence's meaning. Propositions are also involved in other sentence types like interrogatives and imperatives.

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156 views8 pages

Sentence, Utterance, and Proposition

An utterance is any stretch of talk by one person before and after silence. A sentence is an abstract string of words constructed by grammatical rules, which may be realized in different utterances. Not all utterances express full sentences; they can be parts of sentences like phrases or words. A proposition describes a state of affairs involving things or people referred to in a declarative sentence's meaning. Propositions are also involved in other sentence types like interrogatives and imperatives.

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amandaaristania
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© © All Rights Reserved
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SENTENCE, UTTERANCE,

AND PROPOSITION
UTTERANCE

• AN UTTERANCE IS ANY STRETCH OF TALK, BY ONE


PERSON, BEFORE AND AFTER WHICH THERE IS
SILENCE ON THE PART OF THAT PERSON.
• 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.
• NOT ALL UTTERANCES ARE ACTUALLY TOKENS OF SENTENCES, BUT SOMETIMES
ONLY OF PARTS OF SENTENCES, E.G. PHRASES OR SINGLE WORDS.
• A SENTENCE IS A GRAMMATICALLY COMPLETE STRING OF WORDS EXPRESSING A
COMPLETE THOUGHT.
• 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 OR A WORD.
• ‘HELP’ REPRESENTS AN UTTERANCE.
• THE STEEPLES HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING REPRESENTS A SENTENCE.
• ‘THE STEEPLES HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING’ REPRESENTS AN
UTTERANCE.
PROPOSITION

• 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 AND THE SITUATION OR ACTION THEY ARE
INVOLVED IN. IN UTTERING A DECLARATIVE SENTENCE A SPEAKER TYPICALLY
ASSERTS A PROPOSITION.
• IN OUR DEFINITION OF ‘PROPOSITION’ WE EXPLICITLY MENTIONED
DECLARATIVE SENTENCES, BUT PROPOSITIONS ARE CLEARLY INVOLVED IN THE
MEANINGS OF OTHER TYPES OF SENTENCES, SUCH AS INTERROGATIVES, WHICH
ARE USED TO ASK QUESTIONS, AND IMPERATIVES, WHICH ARE USED TO CONVEY
ORDERS. NORMALLY, WHEN A SPEAKER UTTERS A SIMPLE DECLARATIVE
SENTENCE, HE COMMITS HIMSELF TO THE TRUTH OF THE CORRESPONDING
PROPOSITION: I.E. HE ASSERTS THE PROPOSITION. BY UTTERING A SIMPLE
INTERROGATIVE OR IMPERATIVE, A SPEAKER CAN MENTION A PARTICULAR
PROPOSITION, WITHOUT ASSERTING ITS TRUTH.

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