Sentential Semantics
Some Sense Properties of Sentences
Analytic: An analytic sentence is one which is necessarily true, because of the senses of the words in it. Therefore, an analytic sentence can be judged true without recourse to real world knowledge separate from the sense of the words contained in it.
EXAMPLES: Elephants are animals. Cats are not fish. My brother is male.
Contradictory: A contradictory sentence (or a contradiction) is a sentence which is necessarily false, because of the senses of the words in the sentence.
EXAMPLES: Cats are fish. Corpses are alive. Elephants are not animals.
Synthetic: A synthetic sentence is one which is not analytic or contradictory, but which may be true or false depending on the way the world is.
EXAMPLES: My oldest cousin is female. My brother is tall. Some cats eat wool.
Other Properties in Sentence Interpretation
Presuppositions: the propositions or beliefs assumed by an utterance. Those people stopped smoking presupposes that (1) the designated people exist; (2) that the activity called smoking exists; (3) that that activity is known to the hearers; and (4) that the designated people habitually smoked in the past.
Assertions: the propositions or beliefs which are conveyed, but not assumed, by an utterance. The utterance above asserts that the designated people ended the habitual activity (smoking).
Semantic/Thematic Roles
Semantic/Thematic Roles: "the term...used to describe the part played by a particular entity in an event." (O'Grady, Dobrovolsky, & Aronoff: 226)
Some thematic roles (O,D,&A: 227):
Agent: the entity who deliberately performs an action
Theme: the entity undergoing a change of state or transfer
Source: the starting point for a transfer
Goal: the end point for a transfer
Experiencer: the entity perceiving something
Location: the place at which an entity or action is located.
Stimulus: the entity perceived
Instrument: the entity used to carry out an action