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5 - Semantics and Logic

This document discusses semantics and logic concepts including: - Analytic versus contradictory sentences, with analytic sentences being true by virtue of meaning alone and contradictory sentences being false due to the meaning of words. - The difference between a contradiction, which is a logical inconsistency, and an anomaly, which involves a violation of selectional restriction rules in combining word meanings. - The distinction between sentences, which are strings of words, and propositions, which are the abstract meanings expressed by sentences. - Examples that illustrate relationships between sentences such as ambiguity, paraphrase, entailment, analyticity, and contradiction.

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411 views

5 - Semantics and Logic

This document discusses semantics and logic concepts including: - Analytic versus contradictory sentences, with analytic sentences being true by virtue of meaning alone and contradictory sentences being false due to the meaning of words. - The difference between a contradiction, which is a logical inconsistency, and an anomaly, which involves a violation of selectional restriction rules in combining word meanings. - The distinction between sentences, which are strings of words, and propositions, which are the abstract meanings expressed by sentences. - Examples that illustrate relationships between sentences such as ambiguity, paraphrase, entailment, analyticity, and contradiction.

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gabriela
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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R.

Albu, Semantics

WORKSHEET 5: Semantics and Logic

A. ANALYTIC vs. CONTRADICTORY SENTENCES.


CONTRADICTION AND ANOMALY

1. Some linguists and philosophers distinguish between two kinds of truthful statements: one
follows from the definition or meaning of a word; the other simply happens to be true in the
world as we know it. Thus, kings are monarchs is true because the word king has the semantic
property "monarch" as part of its meaning; but kings are rich is circumstantially true. We can
imagine a poor king, but a king who is not a monarch is not truly a king. Sentences like kings are
monarchs are told to be analytic, true by virtue of meaning alone. Write A by any of the
following sentences that are analytic, and N by the ones that are not analytic.
a. Queens are monarchs.
b. Queens are female.
c. Queens are mothers.
d. Dogs are four-legged.
e. Dogs are animals.
f. Cats are felines.
g. Cats are stupid.
h. George Washington is George Washington.
i. George Washington was the first president
j. Uncles are male.

2. The opposite of analytic is contradictory. A sentence that is false due to the meaning of its
very words alone is contradictory. Kings are female is an example. Write a C by the contradictory
sentences and F by sentences that are not contradictory.

a. My aunt is a man.
b, Witches are wicked.
c. My brother is an only child.
d. The evening star isn't the morning star.
e. The evening star isn't the evening star.
f. Babies are adults.
g. Puppies are human.
h. My bachelor friends are all married.
i. My bachelor friends are all lonely.

3. CONTRADICTION is most centrally a logical term. The basic form of a logical contradiction is p
& - p. Anything that is clearly an instance of this basic logical contradiction, e.g. John is here and
John isn't here can be called a contradiction. ANOMALY is semantic oddness (as opposed to
grammatical oddness) that can be traced in the meanings of the predicates in the sentences
concerned. Thus Christopher is killing phonemes is anomalous because the meanings of the
predicates kill and phoneme cannot be combined in this way. Anomaly involves violation of a
selectional restriction rules.

For each sentence below, say whether it is a basic contradiction (C), anomalous (A), or
semantically acceptable (OK).

(1) Hilde's cow is a beautiful animal.


(2) Jack's courage chewed the bone.
(3) James sliced the idea.
(4) John is neither here nor here.
(5) This contradictory sentence is not contradictory.
B. MEANING RELATIONS BETWEEN SENTENCES

I. Which of the following correctly distinguishes sentences from propositions? Circle your choice.

(a) A proposition is an act of proposing something, usually performed by uttering


some sentence.
(b) A sentence is the abstract representation of a particular meaning whereas a
proposition is a string of words expressing that meaning in a particular language.
(c) A proposition is the abstract meaning of a declarative sentence when that
sentence is used to make an assertion.

II. Consider the following eight sentences:

(a) John passed the hammer and the saw through the window.
(b) John saw through the window and passed the hammer.
(c) John passed the hammer and saw through the window.
(d) John passed the saw and the hammer through the window.
(e) John passed the hammer.
(f) John saw through the window.
(g) The hammer which John saw was not a hammer.
(h) A saw is a tool.

1. Say which of the above sentences is ambiguous.


2. Two other sentences in this set are in a paraphrase relationship. Which two?
3. Which sentence is entailed by sentence (d) but does not entail it?
4. Which of the above sentences is analytic?
5. Which of the above sentences is a contradiction?

REMEMBER!

Utterance: "Jesus wept"


Sentence: Jesus wept.
Proposition: JESUS WEEP

Conventional signs in logic (and semantics):


• Connectives:
and: &
or: V
• Negative operator: ~
• Paraphrase: 
• Entailment: 

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