Notes on Introduction to Logic -- Phil A101

William Jamison - Instructor

Lecture 3:

So how does language work? We think of  individual words as having definitions. We think of groups of words as showing different kinds of relationships between the words in the groups we use. This chapter deals with:

2. The Uses of Language.

Keep in mind that the text and the eLogic web site are your main concern for completing this course. My notes are extra in case you are interested in my thoughts about the subject as we go. These are the kinds of things we might discuss in class that would bother some people because they seemed off track but would interest others because they are interesting things to think about.

My first language was English. In high school I had two years of Latin and two years of French. In college I had several more years of French and eventually took my Master's requirement in French but I also took one semester of German and one semester of Greek (New Testament). I would later spend nine months studying Polish, only to end up spending a year studying Russian before the Army sent me to live in Germany! I lived in Germany for three years and felt very comfortable speaking German. Meanwhile, each year the Army tested us (those in Military Intelligence who were linguists) on the basics in ten European languages.

It all becomes very confusing.

Eventually you feel like all our languages are pretty much the same sort of thing. Just the vocabulary is different.

Then think about the difference between one community and another in the United States. Most of the vocabulary is the same. We watch the same TV shows and listen to the same radio stations. But there are group differences, not only because of ethnic linguistic associations, but also because of relatively unique differences that develop among smaller groups. Slang, for example, is such a difference. I think even families have their unique differences. So some of the vocabulary is different. Some of the words have slightly different meanings, or very different meanings.

Then there are generational differences. "Cool" is not cool, "hot" is not hot, and "whatever" has a peculiar fricative ending that says you are from "the Valley."

In light of this, think how meaning and truth are related to the context of a statement. If different people use different vocabularies the meaning and the context are never exactly the same from moment to moment let alone from language group to language group.

What we come to accept as consensus, truth, is a matter of compromise in some cases, one group forcing its consensus on different language groups in others.

In what sense can we ever be certain about anything?

As Americans we are generally pragmatists about this.

In that case, we can think of language as a tool and what we mean by truth is that what we expect will happen according to how we understand a statement happens the way we expect. That is, it works. The use a statement has in a particular context enables us to accomplish what we used the statement to do.

Chapter 2 examines the uses of language. The three basic functions are given as: 1. communicating information, 2. expressing emotions, feelings, or attitudes and 3. causing or preventing overt action. It seems that these fit, in order, what are called declarative sentences, exclamations, and imperatives but notice the list on page 80 is given after demonstrating that grammatical form and use are not so clearly linked.

The next section goes into kinds of agreement and disagreement, attitudes and beliefs.

This page is maintained by William S. Jamison. It was last updated August 14, 2012. All links on these pages are either to open source or public domain materials or they are marked with the appropriate copyright information. I frequently check the links I have made to other web sites but each source is responsible for their own content.