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LOGIC AND
LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 3
LOGIC AND MEANING
Lesson 1
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The Function of Language
Argument
>>> statements
>>>declarative sentences
>>>Words
*Words are the most basic units in any language
The Function of Language
When do you use language?
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The Function of Language
Language is used to: (according to L. Wittgenstein)
Ask Give Issue
questions directions commands
Tell jokes Guess at Launch
Tell stories answers verbal
Sing songs assaults
Flirt with
someone Form Greet
hypotheses someone
Tell lies and so on.
The Function of Language
Two important functions in
Linguistics:
[Link] convey information
[Link] express or evoke feelings
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“Death penalty was abolished in the
Philippines in 2006 after President Gloria
Arroyo signed RA 9364. A total of 74
executions were carried out in the
Philippines from the presidency of Elpidio
Quirino until Estrada.”
“Death penalty is a cruel and inhuman
form of punishment in which hapless
prisoners are dragged from their cells and
summarily slaughtered only to satiate the
bloodlust of a vengeful public.”
The Function of Language
Terminology that conveys
information is said to have
cognitive meaning
terminology that expresses or
evokes feelings is said to have
emotive meaning
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Two important points:
statements usually have both
cognitive meaning and emotive
meaning. Since logic is concerned
mainly with the cognitive
meaning, it is important to
distinguish and disengage the
cognitive meaning from the
emotive meaning.
Two important points:
Part of the cognitive meaning of
statements is a value claim.
Value claim is a claim that
something is good, bad, right, wrong,
or better, worse, more important or
less important than some other thing.
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For example, the claim that the death penalty is immoral
cannot simply stand by itself.
It needs reasons to support it.
When value claims are couched in emotive terminology,
it tends to obscure the fact that a value claim is being
made, and it simultaneously gives psychological
momentum to that claim.
As a result, readers and listeners are inclined to swallow
the value claim whole without any evidence.
Furthermore, the intellectual laziness of many
speakers and writers, combined with their inability to
supply supporting reasons for their value claims,
reinforces the desirability of couching such claims in
emotive terminology
Many people, for example, will refer to someone as
crazy, stupid, or weird when they want to express
the claim that what that person is doing is bad or
wrong and when they are unable or unwilling to
give reasons for this claim.
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Emotive Terminologies in Arguments
In arguments, emotive terminology accomplishes
basically the same function as emotive terminology
in statements.
It allows the arguer to make value claims about the
subject matter of the argument without providing
evidence, and it gives the argument a kind of
steamroller quality by which it tends to crush
potential counter arguments before the reader or
listener has a chance to think of them.
Emotive Terminologies in Arguments
Example:
Now that we know that the rocks on the moon
are similar to those in our backyard and that
tadpoles can exist in a weightless environment,
and now that we have put the rest of the world in
order, can we concentrate on the problems here
at home? Like what makes people hungry and
why is unemployment so elusive?
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Emotive Terminologies in Arguments
P-1: The space program has been confined to work on
ordinary rocks and tadpoles.
P-2: Ordinary rocks and tadpoles are less important than
domestic hunger and unemployment.
P-3: Our international efforts have restored order to every
nation on earth but our own.
P-4: These efforts have been directed to problems that are
less important than our own domestic problems.
C: Therefore, our government should redirect funds that have
been spent on these projects to solving our own domestic
problems.
Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Vagueness
A linguistic expression is said to be
vague if there are borderline cases in
which it is impossible to tell if the
expression applies or does not apply.
Vague expressions often allow for a
continuous range of interpretations.
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Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Examples of vague words:
Love normal
Happiness polluted
Peace poor
Fresh rich
Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Example
The patient is having
headache.
Poor people needs
more medical attention.
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Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Ambiguity
An expression is said to be
ambiguous when it can be
interpreted as having more
than one clearly distinct
meaning in a given context.
Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Example of words which can be ambiguous:
Light chest
Proper bank
Critical sound
Stress race
mad
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Deficiency of Cognitive Meanings:
Vagueness and Ambiguity
Example
Mary’s father is having dialysis three times a
week. They need type O+ blood thus she
always go to the bank.
Mike is rushed to the hospital after drinking
liquor that is light.
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