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Chapter 1: The Informative Function of Language

Chapter 1: The Informative Function of Language. Statements ( pp. 2-4). Expressed by declarative sentences True or false depending upon the way the world is Criteria of truth Is truth always important? Contexts: “Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were friends.”. Ambiguity (pp. 4-6).

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Chapter 1: The Informative Function of Language

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  1. Chapter 1: The Informative Function of Language

  2. Statements ( pp. 2-4) • Expressed by declarative sentences • True or false depending upon the way the world is • Criteria of truth • Is truth always important? • Contexts: “Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were friends.”

  3. Ambiguity (pp. 4-6) • Words often have several meanings. • Poorly constructed sentences can have several meanings: “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don’t know.” Animal Crackers • Ambiguities must be eliminated to determine the truth of a statement.

  4. Vagueness (pp. 7-8) • A word is vague if there are no determinate criteria for its application. • Examples: ‘big’, ‘many’, ‘hard’, ‘bald’ • Metaphorical uses of words • Using hypothetical (conditional) statements to reduce vagueness • Vagueness must be reduced to determine whether a statement is true or false.

  5. Factual and Verbal Disputes (pp. 9-10) • Factual disputes concern the way the world is. • Verbal disputes rest on ambiguities in language: once the ambiguity is recognized, the dispute disappears.

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