Semantics I acknowledgements
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| 3.4.2 Parts of Proposition Like sentence, proposition can be broken into a smaller units, the units which are s-called the structure (which constructs) of proposition. The proposition like The camel is dessert animal. Consists of subject, Copula and Predicate. It is charted as The camel is a dessert animal. S C P The subject tells us what the proposition is about, the copula functions as joining the predicate to the subject and tell us something about the existence or quality of the subject. The predicate tells us what is said about the subject. SEMANTICS Page From this, we can understand that the proposition is about the camel (S) what is said about the subject is that the camel after joined by copula exist as a dessert animal. But those divisions which were proposed by Sullivan seem to be awkward since there is a proposition or propositions which contain no copula, like : The police runs. The proposition of this kind, according to Sullivan can be put into copula form by rephrasing as : The police is running. Also, the sentence ; Every bird sings becomes : Every bird sings songster. The subject of a proposition have values of quantity like every, some, few, this, that, etc. these propositions below can be typed into universal affirmative, universal negative, particular affirmative and particular negative successively Every dog barks - No dog barks. - Some dog barks. - Some dog does not bark. The proposition ; All dog bark is also a universal affirmative since it is included in each dog. The proposition ; This dog barks is a particular singular affirmative. Of the types of proposition mentioned above we know SEMANTICS Page that its quantity depends on the extension of the subject, that is, the nature about which the proposition says something is taken in its whole extension or part of it. We can also apply this to the predicate. Thus the proposition Every tiger is wild. tells us that the class of tiger is found within the class of things that are wild. In this case the class which is signified by predicate to the subject is not limited. Other things apart from tigers can be wild. Their relation can be diagrammed as follow, the black area is the part of the area about which we are making a statement. The diagram consists of two areas, the small circle in the middle (S) is the class of tiger which is found within the area of the extension of the class wild. So there is still roo for other things besides tiger in the class wild. P. things that are wild S. tiger SEMANTICS Page If our proposition is ; Some tigers are wild, the diagram would be So the diagram indicates that part of tiger is wild, which is seen in the diagram as the overlapping area (between the class wild and class tiger). The predicate in universal negative is separated entirely from the class of the subject. The proposition ; no tiger is wild, the negation makes the class of tiger separated from the class of being wild. So the diagram would be S tiger P : things that are wild S : tiger P : things that are wild SEMANTICS Page In the diagram we can seethe whole black area is things that are wild. From negative proposition ; No tiger is wild. That is why the class of tiger (S) s separate from the things that are wild (P). In the particular negative : some tigers are not wild, part of the subject indicated by the word some is in the area of the class of things which are wild, as seen in the diagram below We have seen the part of proposition : SC P and the types of Sand relation between Sand P via its copula are those which constructs a proposition and its type. Sullivan added the term modifier to the subject and predicate. Sullivan’s idea in the case of the parts of proposition seems to be somewhat fail, for we have some declarative sentences which cannot be rephrased into the form of copula. The proposition like ; Every child likes sweets, is a casein point, where if it is changed it becomes ; *Every child is liking sweets. The asterisk indicates ungrammaticality. Since proposition deals with meaning, we can rephrase the proposition by putting it into passive form : Sweets are liked by every child. The two propositions have the same meaning in spite of their S : tiger P : things that are wild SEMANTICS Page difference inform. Therefore they constitute one proposition. From this what Sullivan stated that the SC, and P and their relationship to each other as the logical form of proposition is true, because the problem of logic is the problem of meaning. In case grammar, a proposition consists of two basic parts, they are the verb, its arguments and modality. The argument here is not like the one that we have discussed, but it is a noun or noun phrase (NP. Modality (Mod) consists of : verb, tense, modals, aspect, etc. Let’s have a look on this proposition He kicked the ball. It consists of two arguments, verb and the verb tense. So it can be analyzed as follows : - He = Arg (The ball = Arg (2) - Kicked = V - -ed = V (tense) The term predication is included to the verb and modality, which is concerned with semantic category as : action, process, position, condition, and identity. Thus would be : Prop Arg 1) + Arg (2) + P This is also in accordance with the diagram below, but the predicate follows the arguments : SEMANTICS Page 44 Prop Predication Argument (Argument (The final form of the proposition : Prop Pred Arg (1) Arg(2) Action actor object V + Past N (N (2) Kicked He the ball The parts of proposition of this sort are more practical than that of S< C< P sequence. The proposition which contains copula : Amar is at home. SEMANTICS Page can be diagrammed as : Prop Pred Arg V N C Loc Actor Is at home Amar Download 332.89 Kb. Share with your friends:
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