Group 5:

Nguyễn Văn Thanh

Nguyễn Việt Hưng
Dương Gia Huy
Mai Thị Trà My
Lê Hà Khánh Phương

UNIT 9: SENSE PROPERTIES AND STEREOTYPES

Exercise 1/103: You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit:
1. SENSE
 The SENSE of an expression is its indispensable hard core of meaning
 This definition deliberately excludes any influence of context or situation of utterance
on the senses of expression. (Therefore, it is problematic to talk of the senses of
deictic words)
 The sense of an expression can be thought of as the sum of its sense properties and
sense relations with other expressions.
 Three important sense properties of sentences:
1. The properties of being analytic
2. The properties of being synthetic
3. The properties of being contradictory

2. ANALYTIC SENTENCE
 An ANALYTIC sentence is one that is necessarily TRUE, as a result of the senses
of the words in it. An ANALYTIC sentence, therefore, reflects a tacit (unspoken)
agreement by speakers of the language about the senses of the words in it.
Example: All elephants are animals
The truth of the sentence follows from the senses of elephant and animal.

3. SYNTHETIC SENTENCE
 A SYNTHETIC sentence is one which is NOT analytic, but may be either true or
false, depending on the way the world is.
Example: John is from Ireland
There is nothing in the senses of John or Ireland or from which makes this necessarily
true or false.

4. CONTRADICTION SENTENCE
 A CONTRADICTION is a sentence that is necessarily FALSE, as a result of the
senses of the words in it. Thus a contradiction is in a way the opposite of analytic
sentence.
Example: This animal is a vegetable
This must be false because of the senses of animal and vegetable

ANALYTIC vs CONTRADICTION

 The opposite of each other.

 Analytic sentences can be formed from contradictions, and vice versa.
 By the insertion or removal, as appropriate, of the negative particle word not.
This animal is a vegetable  CONTRADICTION
This animal is not a vegetable  ANALYTIC

The figurative use of analytic sentences & contradictions

 We pay no attention to it in our analysis here.
That man is not a human

 Literally  CONTRADICTION
 Figuratively being a contradiction gives it power to communicate a strong
emotional judgement (stronger than, say, the synthetic That man is very cruel)

Limitations of the Notions analytic, synthetic, and contradiction.

 These notions are defined in terms of truth.
 Since imperative and interrogative sentences cannot be true or false so they
cannot be analytic or synthetic, because ‘synthetic’ only makes sense in contrast to
the notion ‘analytic’
  Close the door.
 Is the door closed?

Informativeness & Sense Properties of Sentences

Synthetic Analytic & Contradiction
o Potentially informative in real-world o Not informative to anyone who already
situations knows the meaning of the words in them
o Example: Alice is Ken’s sister o Example: An avocado is vegetable.

o They concentrate attention on unusual sentences (e.g. analytic & contradictions),

reflect a lack of interest in ordinary, everyday language (e.g. synthetic)
o Semanticists are interested in the foundations of everyday communication.
o People can only communicate meaningfully about everyday matters, using
informative synthetic sentences, because (or to extent that) they agree on the
meanings of the words in them  This basic agreement on meaning is reflected in
analytic sentences & contradictions
o The notions analytic, synthetic, and contradiction each apply to individual
sentences. Analyticity, syntheticity, and contradiction are, then, sense properties of
sentences.
Example:
1. That man is human has the sense property of analyticity (or being analytic)
2. That man is tall has the sense property of syntheticity (or being synthetic)
3. That man is a woman has the sense property of being a contradiction

The interdependences of sense relations & sense properties of sentences

o Sense properties of sentences (e.g. analyticity) depend on the sense properties of,
and the sense relations between, the words they contain.
Example: the sense relation between the predicates man & human is known as
hyponymy, a kind of sense inclusion relationship between predicates
Example: the sense relation between the predicates man & woman is a kind of
antonymy, or oppositeness
 o The sense structure of a language is like a network, in which the senses of all
elements are, directly or indirectly, related to the senses of all other elements in
these and other kinds of ways
o Limitation in the idea of sense, a limitation which is Quite parallel to a limitation
in the idea of extension

Reviewing the relationship between sense and extension

o A speaker’s knowledge of the sense of a predicate provides him with an idea of its
extension i.e the sense of a predicate determines or ‘fixes’ the extension of that
predicate
e.g. The ‘dictionary definition’ which the speaker accepts for cat can be used to decide
what is cat, and what is not, thus defining, implicitly, the set of all cats.

5. STEREOTYPE
 The STEREOTYPE of a predicate is a list of the TYPICAL characteristics or
features of things to which the predicate may be applied.
Example: The stereotype of cat would be something like: quadruped, domesticated, either
black, or white, or grey, or tortoise-shell, or marmalade in colour, or some combination
of these colours, adult specimens about 50 cm long from nose to tip of tail, furry with
sharp retractable claws, etc

Exercise 2/103: Assume that John is the same person in each of the following
sentences. Now, if the sentence John is a bachelor is true, then is it true or false that
a. John is male. c. John is human.
b. John is unmarried. d. John is adult.
If the sentence John is a bachelor is true, then all of (2a-d) are true. The word
“bachelor” means a man who is not married so all four options satisfy the sense of the
word “bachelor”
Exercise 3-7/104: For questions 3-7, indicate whether each sentence is analytic,
synthetic, or a contradiction. If you are not sure about a sentence, say why it is not a
clear-cut case.
3. a. All bachelors are unmarried.  Analytic (The word “bachelor” means a man who is
not married so this sentence is true)
b. All bachelors are happy.  Synthetic (maybe some bachelors are happy while others
are not so it depends on the situation)
c. All bachelors are married.  Contradiction (The word “bachelor” means a man who
is not married so this sentence is false)

4. a. All misers are stingy.  Analytic (The word “miser” means a person who loves
money and hates spending it so this sentence is true)
b. All misers are rich.  Synthetic (it depends on who misers are, maybe some of them
are rich and not willing to spend money while others are not rich and not willing to spend
money either)
c. All misers waste money.  Contradiction (The word “miser” means a person who
loves money and hates spending it so this sentence is false)
d. All misers are miserable.  Synthetic (it depends on who misers are, maybe some of
them are miserable and not willing to spend money while others are not miserable and
not willing to spend money either)

5. a. All carnivores eat meat.  Analytic (The word “carnivore” means any animal that
eats meat so this sentence is true)
b. All mammals produce live young.  Analytic (The word “mammal” means any
animal that gives birth to live young, not eggs, and feeds its young on milk so this
sentence is true)

6. a. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.  Contradiction (A bachelor is a

man who is not and has never been married so this sentence is false)
b. This stool has a broken back.  Contradiction (The word “stool” according to
Longman dictionary is a seat that has three or four legs, but no back or arms so this
sentence is wrong)

7. a. Kings are monarchs.  Analytic (the word “monarch” means a person who rules a
country, for example a king or a queen so this sentence is true)
b. Kings are male.  Analytic (the word “king” means the male ruler of an independent
state that has a royal family so this sentence is true)
c. Kings are fathers.  Synthetic (it depends on the situation because some kings have
children while others don’t)
d. George Washington was the first president.  Synthetic (it depends on the situation
because there are nations whose first president was not George Washington)
e. Witches are wicked.  Synthetic (it depends on who witches are because some
witches are evil while others are nice)
f. My brother is an only child.  Contradiction (the word “brother” means a boy or man
who has the same parents as another person so there are at least two children in this
family)
g. Puppies are human.  Contradiction (the word “puppy” means a young dog so this
sentence is wrong

Exercise 11/ 104: What is the difference between prototype and stereotype (or
semantic feature) as set forth in this unit?
- A PROTOTYPE is an actual entity in the extension of a predicate that is the most
central member while a STEREOTYPE is an abstract specification or list of typical
features of the prototype. A stereotype is related to a prototype but is not the same
thing.
Example: A prototype of elephant is some actual elephant, whereas the stereotype
of elephant is a list of characteristics which describes the prototype.
Example: The stereotype of a predicate may often specify a range of possibilities (e.g. the
range of colors of typical cats), but an individual prototype of this predicate
 will necessarily take some particular place within this range (e.g. Black).
- A speaker may well know a stereotype for some predicate but not actually be acquainted
with any prototypes of it.
Ex: ghost, witchdoctor, flying saucer, devil…

Prototype Stereotype

điển dạng khuôn mẫu

an object which is held to be very TYPICAL of a list of characteristics which describes the
the kind of object prototype

necessarily take some particular place within specify a range of possibilities (e.g. the range of
this range (e.g. black) colours of typical cats)

a speaker can not actually be acquainted with a speaker may well know a stereotype for some
any prototypes of it (direct experience) predicate, such as ghost, witchdoctor, flying
saucer (learnt about at second hand, through
descriptions)