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b. Iraq is Iraq
b. Now is tomorrow
-Bill is a bachelor.
So in the sentence :
-Water boils at 60 F
Semanticists call a sentence`s being true or false truth value and the facts of
reality which make sentences true or false truth conditions
As in :
If A is true then B is false and vice versa. The scheme which logicians use is
the logical form representing statements with lower case letters i.e (p.k.r
etc..) and a special symbol for negation : -
A- P -P
T F
F T
In case of compound statements connected by and the truth of the
constituent determines the truth of the compound i.e
The player is injured,
P q p /\ q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F
And for the case of a compound connected by disjunctive or (\/). It is true if
P q p \/ q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F
In the following sentence:
Other type is the exclusive or (\/,) with the following truth table:
P q p \/, q
T T F
T F T
F T T
F F F
-You will study hard or you will fail
The next connective is the material implication with the symbol
With the truth table :
P q p q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T
p q is false only when p( the antecedent) is true and q (the
consequent) is false (like the use of if..then)
- If it rains, I will go to the movies.
It can be false if it rains and I don`t go to the movies so we say p is a
sufficient condition for q (rain is the cause to go)but not a necessary
condition (other reasons might make him go)
The logical relation of the material implication captures some but not all
aspects of ifthen.
Another related connective is the bi-conditional represented by
Corresponding to (if and only if ). P q only when they have the same
truth value (if q then p and if p then q)
P q p q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T
To sum up these statements have truth value which corresponds to facts,
and various ways of connecting statements have different effects on the
truth-value of the compound produced.
Necessary truth
It is another type of truth which is a function of linguistic structure. How
can we know that a sentence is true or false without referring to reality?.
The truth that is known without experience is called priori in contrast with
posteriori truth (depends on empirical testing).
Another related concept is that the distinction between necessary truth (
which we cannot deny unless we force contradiction) and contingent which
can be contradicted according to facts. Sentences are necessarily true only
when we should change the present facts of the world to make them false
i.e one plus one equals two or necessarily false i.e He was killed but
fortunately stayed alive .however we can hypothesize that it is the nature
of reality which ensures that one plus one equals two.
We also have the terms analytic, (where the truth follows from the
meaning relations within the sentence regardless of any relationship with
the world), and synthetic (where truth corresponds to the facts of the
world) with respect to tautologies :
- The sun is the sun (analytic)
- The sun is a big planet (synthetic)
-
Predicate logic:
When dealing with sentences with quantifiers like all, ever , each also
called logical words then it is a second type of logic called predicate logic
-All birds that fly are birds.
Necessary truth, in case of verbs, is indicated by the semantic relationship
between the verbs (individual lexical relations)
- If Germany beat brazil then brazil lose to Germany .
Necessarily true sentences can also derive from lexical relations i.e
- If she is dead then she is not alive
- If he is my father then I am his son
- An elephant is a primate
Entailment :
Entailment is not inference, we just know it instantaneously because of our
knowledge of English. Entailment relations are given to us by linguistic
structure, we don`t have to check any fact in the world to conclude the
entailed sentence from the entailing sentence. The source can be lexical or
syntactic.
A -They assassinated the emperor.
B -The emperor is dead.
B entails q and the truth of q guarantees the truth of p and the falsity of
q guarantees the falsity of p
Here the source of entailment is lexical, between assassin and dead
The syntactic source is expressed with the passive/active structure as in
the following sentence:
A- The Romans invaded Britain.
B- Britain was invaded by the Romans
Presupposition:
Presupposition is an elusive concept that has much been discussed in both
philosophy and linguistics. It is not an ignorable subject in semantics
because it raises the problem of how to interpret the relation between
semantics and pragmatics- between meaning and use.
Presupposition triggers:
They are particular words or constructions which produce presupposition.
Some derive from syntactic structure :
A it was plying with snakes that frightened me.
B - What frightened me was his playing with snakes.
C - something frightened me.
Other triggers :
Lexical triggers like verbs as in factive verbs i.e realize and regret which
presuppose the truth of their complement clause:
A Bill realized that he had skin wrinkles
B Bill thought that he had skin wrinkles
C Bill had skin wrinkles.
Another example is the change of state verbs like start and begin :
A- Bill stopped seeing horror movies
B- Bill used to see horror movies