Clarifying Meaning

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Chapter 3

• Clarifying Meaning

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Grammatical Ambiguity

• The use of a sentence is grammatically ambiguous
  when it allows two or more possible
  interpretations.
• E.g., Eats shoots and leaves.
• A Panda Bear eats shoots and leaves

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• A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich,
  eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it
  at the other patrons.Why? asks the confused,
  surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda
  makes towards the exit. The panda produces a
  badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it
  over his shoulder.Well, Im a panda, he says
  at the door. Look it up.The waiter turns to
  the relevant entry in the manual and, sure
  enough, finds an explanation. Panda. Large
  black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to
  China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

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Examples

• Lord Denning spoke against the artificial
  insemination of women in the House of Lords
• Olga decided to quit smoking while driving to
  Toronto.
• He promised to pay Patrick and Michael 50 to
  clear all of the junk out of the basement and
  take it to the dump.

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Use and Mention

• A word is mentioned if it is the word itself that
  you are talking about.
• E.g. Chicago has 7 letters.
• A word is used if we are talking, not about the
  word, but what the word denotes.
• E.g., Chicago is a city.

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Use and Mention

• Ambiguities can arise if it is not clear whether
  the word is being used or mentioned
• The most useful way of disambiguating the use and
  mention of a word is through the use of quotation
  marks.
• Put quotes around words that you are mentioning.
• Sometimes, the italicization or capitalization of
  word will be used to disambiguate.

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Self-Test No. 4

• P. 68

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Analytic, Contradictory and Synthetic Statements

• Analytic (defn) a statement which true by
  definition.
• Or A statement which is true in virtue of what
  the words mean.
• Also Some of the statements are regarded as
  analytic because of the form of those sentences.

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Examples

• All bachelors are unmarried adult males.
• It is raining now or it is not raining now.

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Analytic, Contradictory and Synthetic Statements

• Contradictory (defn) a statement which is false
  by definition.
• Or a statement which is false in virtue of what
  the words mean.
• Also (and more usually) false in virtue of the
  form of the sentence.

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Examples

• Some bachelors are married.
• The board is both white and not white.

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Analytic, Contradictory and Synthetic Statements

• Synthetic (defn) a statement which neither
  analytic nor contradictory
• Or Its truth or falsity is not determined by the
  meanings of the words.
• Its truth or falsity is determined by the way the
  world is.

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Examples

• All bachelors are lonely.
• It is raining.

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Self-Test No. 5

• p. 71

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Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

• Conditional statements (defn) these sorts of
  statements state the conditions that must be met
  for some other event/action to arise.
• The conditions that must be met are called the
  antecedent conditions.
• The outcome, once the conditions are met, is
  called the consequent.

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Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

• Examples
• You must be 19 to drink alcohol. (Being 19 is a
  condition that must be met in order for you to be
  permitted to drink alcohol).
• Water will boil at 100C. (Being heated to 100C is
  a condition that must be met in order for water
  to boil)

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Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

• There are two types of conditions found in
  conditional statements
• A) necessary conditions
• B) sufficient conditions
• In order to avoid misinterpretation, it is
  necessary that we be able to distinguish these.

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Necessary and Sufficient Conditions

• Necessary condition (defn) X is a necessary
  condition for Y iff when X is false Y must be
  false also
• Sufficient condition (defn) X is a sufficient
  condition for Y iff when X is true, Y must also
  be true.

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Necessary Conditions

• E.g Being 18 is a condition for being eligible
  to vote
• You can vote only if you are 18.
• If you are not 18 then you cannot vote

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Sufficient Conditions

• E.g., Holding a BA from the University is a
  condition for being a member of the alumni
  association.
• If you hold a BA then you are a member of the
  association.
• You are a member of the association if you hold a
  BA

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Examples

• To bring down a fever, apply a cloth dampened in
  cold water to the patients face, arms and legs.
• You cannot get an A average unless you work hard
  throughout the whole term.

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Examples

• 5. Essays will be returned to the student without
  being graded, if they are submitted without a
  proper bibliography.
• 7. No one can become Prime Minister in our system
  of government unless he or she is a Member of
  Parliament.
• 9. You have to be in good physical condition to
  be a skier.