ABSTRACT

This chapter begins with a few examples from Japanese, because it is very different from most European languages on this point yet it is typical of a rather common type of language. The meaning of a word can be given adequately only when it is provided with variables (in a sentence frame) showing what places need to be filled before it can make a predication that could be true or false. Variables like x and y in the meanings of words (predicators, that is) are 'semantic holes' which must be filled in to make a proposition, so when words combine to make a complete sentence, all the variables should disappear. To show the semantic structure of a proposition, people must put the verb, or a symbol for the meaning of it and any prepositions it requires, in a prominent place. In this way people can represent propositional meanings on the basis of what expressions each verb requires.