Proposition
Proposition Definition of
proposition (David Crystal):
The unit of meaning which constitutes the subject matter of a state, and which is asserted to be true or false. It takes the form of a simple declarative sentence.
An example of a proposition:
(1) Mary hates phonetics.
(1) is a declarative sentence--the speaker is asserting that (1) is true, even if in reality it is not true.
(2) Does Mary hate phonetics.
Here, the speaker is trying to find out if the proposition in sentence (1) is true.
(3) Mary does not hate phonetics.
Here, the speaker is asserting that the proposition in (1) is false.
(4) If Mary hates phonetics, she will likely fail the course.
The first clause in (4) is a conditional clause, the second is a consequential clause. If the first proposition is true (that Mary hates phonetics), as a consequence the second clause is predicted to apply (that she is likely to fail the course). The second clause is a prediction of a proposition. At the time of the speech event, neither proposition can be asserted as true or false.
What do sentences (1) to (3) and the first clause in (4) share in common?
A basic and incomplete proposition which we will call an Eventuality Proposition. The term proposition is considered semantics term. In the syntax it is projected as a phrase. The phrase is labelled according to the projection which the phrase contains.
Propositions are not formally a part of grammar. They belong to conceptual structure which feeds grammar. See Model of Grammar. Propositions are related to argument structure. Argument structure as used here is formally part of the grammar of a language.
Argument Structure: Head (Predicate) and Phrase
(Incomplete Proposition)
The fundamental part of (1) if "Mary hate syntax". This contains the predicate HATE representing the meaning of hate, and it two arguments: the participants of the eventuality. HATE presupposes someone who hates X, and the situation or object that Mary hates. Arguments are written in <CAPS> enclosed in angled brackets. Tense is not considered part of the fundamental meaning of (1). It is removed:
In L322 tense is formally analyzed (see intermediate proposition structure).
Some predicates take one argument:
Bees is the only argument here; exist presumes only one argument:
Note that we are using the base form of the noun to represent a noun. We are putting aside here the question of number and other modifiers of the noun (see proposition structure of the noun).
Some predicates take three arguments:
We are not analyzing complex predicates now.
Even four arguments can be assigned by a single predicate:
Sometimes a complete
clause (large phrase) can occur within another complete proposition:
The embedded phrase (clause) is:
A clause is a special phrase that corresponds to a sentence.
The embedded clause is an argument of TELL:
(13) is one of the arguments of tell. Mary and John are the other arguments.
These phrases
above correspond to propositions in conceptual structure. Each
predicate is a lexical item or a grammatical item. As a lexical
item, it contains the information which syntactic category it
is. Consider, for example, sentence (5). The lexical entry for
each word tells us that Jon is a noun, Mary is a noun, and hate
is a verb:
Each structure like (15) we will call an argument structure. An argument structure underlies the a sentence; in other words all sentences have an underlying argument structure. It is the underlying argument structure that directly corresponds to a conceptual structure. An argument structure has a head, which directly corresponds to a syntactic head. And each head may have a set of arguments. In syntax an argument may be either a complement or a subject.
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