Semantics I acknowledgements
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| 4. 1. 7 Semantic anomaly The term deals with the absurd utterance. For example, The orphan’s mother lives in New York. Therefore Xis absurd in the sense that it presupposes a contradiction. It makes no sense to ask whether Xis true or false. What Geoffrey Leech meant here that it is nonsense to determine whether Xis true or false if it makes no sense at all. For example, if we make Xis anomalous X is absolutely false Then if Xis false it doesn’t mean that it has no sense. SEMANTICS Page 62 4. 2 The Relation Among Statements I The Basic Statements There are relations among the types of statement such as, synonymy, entailment, inconsistency, etc. Like synonymy, can be expressed as bidirectional entailment : Xis synonymous with Y means as the same with X entails Y and entails Y and Y entails X. this will agree with our previous example He is an orphan is synonymous with X - He is a child and have no father and mother. Y - He is an orphan entails X - He is a child and have no father and mother. Y (and vice versa) But if we say X entails Y, it doesn’t mean that Xis synonymous with Y, like He is an orphan entails. X - He has no father. Y SEMANTICS Page The inconsistency of X and Y can be expressed as entailment relation between X and the negation of Y, and between Y and the negation of X. We can see them in the following John is alive is inconsistency with X - John is dead. Y - John is alive has an entailment relation with X - John is dead. Neg Y It seems that inconsistency can also be expressed as Xis synonymous with the negation o Y, and Y is synonymous with the negation of X. It is seen in the fact that the negation of John is dead is synonymous with John is alive. We can also express tautology and contradiction in term of entailment ; a contradiction is a proposition whose negation is tautology, and a tautology is a proposition which is entailed by all other propositions. Let’s prove this with examples Xis a contradiction : Kings are women. X The negation of contradiction is tautology. (neg X = Tautology) : Kings are women. SEMANTICS Page A tautology is a proposition which is entailed by all other propositions (Xis entailed by all other proposition) : Kings are men is the entailment of : X Kings are women. Monarches are kings. Kings bark. Etc. From our analysis of relation among the types of statement, it is true what Leech expressed that all basic statements can be translated into statements about entailment. Download 332.89 Kb. Share with your friends:
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