Unit 5

 To predicate= declare, assert, attribute, affirm, regard

 You cannot communicate any idea without predicting some state or event to an entity.
 Event = verb Entity= noun State= adjective

1. PREDICATOR of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a group of words)

which does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes
the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

 Predicate= word- a word that translates the concept- committed to language Predicator=
meaning-concept- just a sensation

 Intuitively speaking, the predicator describes the state or process in which the referring
expressions are involved.
 The indicators of past and present tense are clearly meaningful. The semantics of tense is
interesting, but its contribution to the meaning of a sentence is of a different type from the
contribution made by the predicator. Verb be is not the predicator.
 The predicators in sentences can be of various parts of speech: adjectives (red, asleep,
hungry, whimsical), verbs (write, stink, place), prepositions (in, between, behind), and
nouns (crook, genius).
 The term ‘predicator’ identifies the semantic role played by a particular word (or group of
words) in a particular sentence.
 We represent the predicate by its SIMPLE BARE FORM
 conjunctions (and, but, or) and articles (the, a), cannot serve as predicators in sentences.

2. PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words i.e. in front of) which (in a given single sense
context) can function as the predicator of a sentence.

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  The term ‘predicate’ identifies elements in the language system, independently of
particular example sentences. Thus, it would make sense to envisage a list of the predicates
of English, as included, say, in a dictionary.
 The term ‘predicator’ identifies the semantic role played by a particular word (or group
of words) in a particular sentence.

3. DEGREE(argument, place, participant) of a predicate is a number indicating the number of

arguments it is normally understood to have in simple sentences.

 Example: Asleep is a predicate of degree one (often called a one-place predicate) Love
(verb) is a predicate of degree two (a two-place predicate)
 The majority of adjectives are one-place predicates.
 Some adjectives in English just require (grammatically) to be joined to a following
argument by apreposition. Such prepositions are relatively meaningless linking particles.
 Most nouns are one-place predicates. But a few nouns could be said to be ‘inherently
relational’. These are nouns such as father, son, brother, mother, daughter, neighbour.
 Sometimes two predicates can have nearly, if not exactly, the same sense, but be of
different grammatical parts of speech.

4. Identity relation is the relation found in equative sentences. The identity of the referents of two
different referring expressions is expressed by a form of the verb be. (X is Y) (x equals y)

 The verb be is meaningless unless it means equal to.

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 Unit 6

 The same words can be used for reference and predication.

 Some expressions are almost always referring expressions no matter what sentences they
occur in. (Cairo, John Biden)
 Indefinite noun phrases can be used in two ways, either as referring expressions, or as
predicating expressions.
 Predicates do not refer. But they can be used by a hearer when contained in the meaning
of a referring expression, to identify the referent of that expression.
 Predicates may be embedded in referring expressions.
 In a sentence like John is the president (IDENTICAL is the predicate)
 The presence of a predicate in a referring expression helps the hearer to identify the
referent of a referring expression.

1. GENERIC SENTENCE is a sentence in which some statement is made about a whole

unrestricted class of individuals, as opposed to any particular individual .

 The whale is a mammal (understood in the most usual way) is a generic sentence.
 This is a rat is a generic sentence.
 That whale over there is a mammal is not a generic sentence

2. Referring expression any expression that can be used to refer to any entity in the real world or
in any imaginary world.

 The things we can talk about and the things that exist are not exactly the same.
 a relationship exactly like reference holds between a part of an utterance and non-existent
things.
 Language is used to talk about the real world and can be used to talk about an infinite
variety of abstractions, and even of entities in imaginary, unreal worlds.

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 Language is used to talk about the real world and can be used to talk about an infinite
variety of abstractions, and even of entities in imaginary, unreal worlds.

3. Universe of Discourse any utterance as the particular world, real or imaginary (or part real,
part imaginary), that the speaker assumes he is talking about at the time.

 No universe of discourse is a totally fictitious world.

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 Unit 7

1. DEICTIC word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the context or situation
(i.e. the speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used.\ a
word whose meaning is not fully defined until the context of when or where it is used is
clarified.

 Example: the pronoun I is deictic. Here. There. Yesterday. Here. Today. You.
 Deictic terms can be:

referring expressions: here, there, today, I, we, you, they

modifiers which can be used with referring expressions: the demonstrative THIS, the

predicates: come, go

2. ‘psychological shifting’ of the speaker’s view-point for the purpose of interpreting one of the
deictic terms.

 This psychological shifting of viewpoint is an example of the flexibility with which

deictic terms can be interpreted.
 In our definition of deixis, ‘time of utterance’ and ‘place of utterance’ must generally
be taken very flexibly. Sometimes these are interpreted very broadly, and sometimes
very narrowly and strictly.
 Tenses for indicating past, present, and future time, which must also be regarded as
deictic, because past, present, and future times are defined by reference to the time of
utterance. (IGNORE)
 A generalization can be made about the behavior of all deictic terms in reported speech.
 A language without deictic terms could not serve the communicative needs of its users.
 The truth of a sentence containing a deictic expression can only be considered in
relation to some hypothetical situation of utterance.

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  In reported speech, deictic terms occurring in the original utterance (the utterance
being reported) may be translated into other, possibly non-deictic, terms in order to
preserve the original reference.

I will meet you here tomorrow – He said he would meet me there the next day.

3. CONTEXT of an utterance is a small subpart of the universe of discourse shared by speaker

and hearer and includes facts about the topic of the conversation in which the utterance occurs,
and also facts about the situation in which the conversation itself takes place.

 The context includes: topic, speaker, listener, time, place, and other words in a previous
statement.
 The exact context of any utterance can never be specified with complete certainty.

4. DEFINITENESS is a feature of a noun phrase selected by a speaker to convey his

assumption that the hearer will be able to identify the referent of the noun phrase, usually
because it is the only thing of its kind in the context of the utterance, or because it is unique
in the universe of discourse.

 If some entity (or entities) (i.e., person(s), object(s), place(s), etc.) is/are the ONLY
entity (or entities) of its/their kind in the context of an utterance, then the definite article
(the) is the appropriate article to use in referring to that entity (or those entities).
 The appropriateness of the definite article is dependent on the context in which it is
used.
 That book is definite. It can only appropriately be used when the speaker assumes the
hearer can tell which book is being referred to.
 The personal pronoun she is definite. It can only appropriately be used when the
speaker assumes the hearer can tell which person is being referred to.
 The Earth is definite. It is the only thing in a normal universe of discourse known by
this name.

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  Proper nouns are definite.
 Indefinite pronouns: anyone, no one, anybody, something, both
 Novelists typically use definiteness in strikingly abnormal ways in the opening
passages of novels.
 The three main types of definite noun phrase in English are (1) Proper names, e.g.,
John, Queen Victoria, (2) personal pronouns, e.g. he, she, it, and (3) phrases introduced
by a definite determiner, such as the, that, this.
 all definite noun phrases are referring expressions.
 Not every noun phrase using the so-called ‘definite article’ the is necessarily
semantically definite.

Does definiteness contribute in any way to the truth or falsehood of a sentence considered in
relation to a given situation? NO it does not contribute to meaning and truth.

Summary:

 Deictic expressions are those which take some element of their meaning directly from the
immediate situation of the utterance
 we can use the same words on different occasions, at different times and places.
 utterances which differ only in that one contains a definite referring expression where the
other has an indefinite referring expression (provided these expressions have the same
referent) do not differ in truth value.
 definiteness of a referring expression tells us nothing about the referent itself.
 The definiteness of a referring expression gives the hearer a clue in identifying its referent.