Extensão de Niassa

Semantics and Discourse Analysis

Reading Notes – II
Unity – II: Sentence, Utterance and Proposition.

➢ Sentence
➢ Utterances
➢ Propositions

In this unit, some basic notions in semantics are introduced to you and it is important that you master
them because right from now they will keep on recurring all along the subject.

I. Utterance
An utterance is any stretch of talk, by a person, before and after which there is silence on the part of the
person. An utterance is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of a language
such as a sequence of sentences or a single phrase, or even a single word.

Exercise:

Decide whether the following could represent utterances:

1. “Hallo” ; 2. “Djamaani..!”; 3. “Pxgtchongtngdt” 4. “Xikhandamoya”
Utterances are physical events. Events are ephemeral. Utterances vanish on the wind. Linguistics deals
with spoken language and we’ll have a lot to discuss about utterances. Now, let us concentrate our
attention on another concept, that of sentence.

II. Sentence
A sentence is neither a physical event nor a physical object. It is an abstract entity conceived in our
minds, mainly formed by complete strings of words put together through grammatical rules, realized
either in utterances or inscriptions, expressing a complete thought.
Exercise:

1. Does it make sense to talk of time and place of a sentence?

2. Does it make sense to talk of time and place of an utterance?
3. Can one talk of loud sentence?
4. Can one talk of slow utterance?

From the two definitions presented above, we can conclude that utterances, other than sentences, can
be found in a particular accent, ie, in a particular way of pronouncing words. This description cannot be
applicable to sentences because sentences are abstract entities only associated with phonetic
characteristics, such as accent and voice quality, through speaker’s act of uttering them. Accent and
voice quality belong strictly to utterances, not to sentences.

Back to the definition of sentence, it is important to emphasize that, in normal conversations, people do
not always produce utterances from complete strings of words, ie, from complete and well-formed
sentences. People may also communicate through utterances of non-sentences, such as single words
and short phrases, and express a complete thought determined by the context of the dialogue. The
single words and short phrases in such contexts are considered to be abbreviations of complete
sentences, as illustrated below:

A B
Hostess: “Would you like tea or coffee?” Teacher: Who was the first president of Mozambique?
Guest: “Coffee please” Student: “Samora Moises Machel”
Semantics is concerned with both the meaning of non-sentences (phrases and single words) and the
meaning of whole sentence. But at this point in time, it is convenient to start focusing the analysis on the
meaning of whole sentence and introduce the notion of proposition which is the heart of Semantics.

III. Proposition
Proposition is that part of meaning of an utterance of a declarative sentence that describes some states
of affairs (i.e. a situation; present circumstances or conditions). The state of affairs normally involves a
person or things referred to by expressions in the sentences. In uttering a declarative sentence, a
speaker typically asserts (assume the truth or believe in) a proposition. The notion of truth can be used
to decide whether two sentences express different propositions. Thus, if there is any conceivable set of
circumstances in which one sentences is true, while the other is false, we can be sure that they express
different propositions.
Exercise:

Analyze the following pairs of sentences. In each case, say whether there are any circumstances of
which one member of the pair is true and the other is false, assuming that the same name, e.g. Anita,
refers to the same person.

1. a) Anita gave out the pencils to the pupils

b) Anita gave the pencils out to the pupils
2. a) John looked up the street
b) John looked the street up
3. a) Mary gave Paul a book
b) Paul was given a book by Mary
4. a) Frank loves Brigida
b) Brigida loves Frank

True propositions correspond to facts, in the ordinary sense of the word fact. False propositions do not
correspond to facts.

Exercises:
In the present–day world:
1. Is it a fact that there are lions in Africa?
2. Is the proposition that there are lions in Africa a true proposition?
3. Is it a fact that there is gas in Palma?
4. Is the proposition that there are no living beings in Sahara Desert a true proposition?

One can entertain propositions in the mind, regardless whether they are true or false, e.g. by thinking
them or believing in them. But only true propositions can be known.

Exercises:
1. If John wonders whether Alice is deceiving him, would it seem reasonable to say that he has the
proposition that Alice is deceiving him, in his mind, and he is not sure whether it is a true or false
proposition? Why?

2. If I say to you “Was your father in the Navy?”, would it seem reasonable to say that I have the
proposition that your father was in the Navy in mind, and I wish to know whether this proposition
is true or not? Why?
In our definition of proposition, we explicitly mentioned declarative sentences. However, propositions
are clearly involved in the meanings of other types of sentences, such as interrogatives and
imperatives. Normally, when a speaker utters a 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 sentence, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without asserting its truth.

For example, in saying “John can go”, a speaker asserts the proposition that John can go. In saying
“Can John go?”, he mentions the same proposition, but simply questions its truth. In such circumstances,
we say that corresponding declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives sentences have the same
propositional content.

Exercises:
1. In the following utterances, is any proposition asserted by the speaker?
a) “Have you seen my toothbrush?”
b) “Get out of here this minute”
c) “I am afraid that I’ll have to ask you to leave”

2. Fill in the chart below with (+) and (-) as appropriate.

Sentences Utterances Propositions
Can be loud
Can be grammatical or not
Can be true or false
Can be in a particular regional accent
Can be in a particular language

Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in
different languages can correspond to the same proposition if they are perfect translations of each other.
A proposition is an abstraction that can be grasped by the mind of an individual person. In this sense, a
proposition is an object of thought. Do not equate propositions with thoughts because thoughts are
usually held to be private, personal, mental processes, whereas propositions are public in the sense that
the same proposition is accessible to different people. Furthermore, a proposition is not a process,
whereas a thought can be seen as a process going on in an individual’s mind.

Unfortunately, of course, the word thought may sometimes be used loosely in way which includes the
notion of a proposition. For instance, one may say “The same thought came into both our heads at the
same time.” In this case, the word thought is being used in a sense quite like that of the word proposition.
The relationship between mental processes (thoughts); abstract semantic entities (propositions);
linguistic entities (sentences) and actions (utterances) is problematic and complicated.
Entertaining with proverbs:

a) “Politics in Mozambique is like a pan. You should eat too much and fast because the spoon is
unique and the food can finish any time” (Mia Couto, 2015)

b) “Nao sou parafuso, mas vivo apertado”

c) “Disability does not mean inability”

d) “A single bracelet does not jingle”

Forum 4: What does the proverb “True love is a decision, not feelings” intend to say?

@malize