Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Qualitative predicates, like green, can be assessed without knowing the spatial or temporal relation of x to a particular time, place or event. Locational predicates, like grue, cannot be assessed without knowing the spatial or temporal relation of x to a particular time, place or event, in this case whether x is being observed before or after ...
The same is true when horse B is removed. However, the statement "the first horse that was excluded is of the same color as the non-excluded horses, who in turn are of the same color as the other excluded horse" is meaningless, because there are no "non-excluded horses" (common elements (horses) in the two sets, since each horse is excluded once).
The garden-path sentence effect occurs when the sentence has a phrase or word with an ambiguous meaning that the reader interprets in a certain way and, when they read the whole sentence, there is a difference in what has been read and what was expected. The reader must then read and evaluate the sentence again to understand its meaning.
First-order logic—also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, quantificational logic—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over non-logical objects, and allows the use of sentences that contain variables.
If, abstractly, the subject category is named S and the predicate category is named P, the four standard forms are: All S are P. (A form) No S are P. (E form) Some S are P. (I form) Some S are not P. (O form) A large number of sentences may be translated into one of these canonical forms while retaining all or most of the original meaning of ...
Such sentences are more consistent with a theory that takes sentence structure to be relatively flat, lacking a finite verb phrase constituent, i.e. lacking the VP of S → NP VP. In order to maintain the traditional subject–predicate division, one has to assume movement (or copying) on a massive scale. The basic difficulty is suggested by ...
Normally, propositions of the subject-predicate form are said to be true if and only if the subject is in the extension of the predicate. But, there is currently no Emperor of Kentucky. So, since the subject does not exist, it is not in the extension of either predicate (it is not on the list of gray people or non-gray people).
A sentence can be viewed as expressing a proposition, something that must be true or false. The restriction of having no free variables is needed to make sure that sentences can have concrete, fixed truth values : as the free variables of a (general) formula can range over several values, the truth value of such a formula may vary.