Context principleIn the philosophy of language, the context principle is a form of semantic holism holding that a philosopher should "never ... ask for the meaning of a word in isolation, but only in the context of a proposition" (Frege [1884/1980] x). AnalysisThe context principle is one of Gottlob Frege's "three fundamental principles" for philosophical analysis, first discussed in his Introduction to The Foundations of Arithmetic (Grundlagen der Arithmetik, 1884).
Sentence (linguistics)In linguistics and grammar, a sentence is a linguistic expression, such as the English example "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" (a pangram). In traditional grammar, it is typically defined as a string of words that expresses a thought, or as a unit consisting of a subject and predicate. In non-functional linguistics it is typically defined as a maximal unit of syntactic structure such as a constituent.
SemanticsStudy of meaning in languageA central topic in semantics concerns the relation between language, world, and mental concepts.Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction between sense and reference.
Philosophy of languageBranch of philosophy Philosophy of language is the study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, indexicality, intentionality, reference, the constitution of sentences, concepts, learning, and thought. Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell were pivotal figures in analytic philosophy's "linguistic turn".
Gottlob FregeFriedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; German:; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philosophy, concentrating on the philosophy of language, logic, and mathematics.
Rudolf CarnapGerman-American philosopher (1891–1970) Rudolf CarnapCarnap in 1930BornPaul Rudolf Carnap(1891-05-18)18 May 1891Ronsdorf, Lennep, Düsseldorf, Rhine, Prussia, German EmpireDied14 September 1970(1970-09-14) (aged 79)Santa Monica, California, U.S.Political partyUSPD (1918 – early 1920s)EducationEducationUniversity of Jena (B.A., 1914; Ph.D., 1921)University of Freiburg (audit student, 1911–12)University of Berlin (graduate research, 1917–18)University of Vienna (Dr. phil.
SyntaxIn linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form well-formed larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns in this area of linguistics include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), agreement, cross-linguistic variation, and the relationship between form and meaning (semantics).QuotationA quotation or quote is used at the start of a sentence to signify what someone might say, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by a quotative marker, such as a verb of saying. For example: John said: "I saw Mary today". Quotations in oral speech are also signaled by special prosody in addition to quotative markers.
George BooleGeorge Boole ( BOOL; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was an English mathematician and philosopher often credited with revolutionizing logic by transforming it from a philosophical study of language into a mathematical system of algebraic equations using binary values and logical operators. Boole was the son of a shoemaker. He received a primary school education and learned Latin and modern languages through various means. At 16, he began teaching to support his family.
Mathematical logicMathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal systems of logic such as their expressive or deductive power. However, it can also include usage of logic to characterize correct mathematical reasoning or to establish foundations of mathematics.
Content wordContent words, in linguistics, are words that possess semantic content and contribute to the meaning of the sentence in which they occur. In a traditional approach, nouns were said to name objects and other entities, lexical verbs to indicate actions, adjectives to refer to attributes of entities, and adverbs to attributes of actions.
IdiomAn idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literalmeaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the literal meanings of each word inside it. Idioms occur frequently in all languages. In English alone there are an estimated twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.