Linguist Forum

Specializations => Semantics and Pragmatics => Topic started by: gladis on September 04, 2015, 10:22:28 PM

Title: non-truth conditional differences
Post by: gladis on September 04, 2015, 10:22:28 PM

Please, can someone help me out here?:

"Characterize the non-truth-conditional differences between the following statements:"

Well, there wasn't a fight on Saturday.
Still, there wasn't a fight on Saturday.
After all, there wasn't a fight on Saturday.
Alas, there wasn't a fight on Saturday.

I have no idea what to do! Any help appreciated! Thanks :)

Title: Re: non-truth conditional differences
Post by: Daniel on September 05, 2015, 12:00:31 PM

In some sense, all of those sentences mean exactly the same thing: the circumstances in which they are true are identical.

But there are also some differences about them (in terms of pragmatics-- context and speaker intent).

Beyond that, since this sounds like a homework assignment, we won't do the work for you. If you have a specific question we may be able to answer that, but you should be able to do this on your own.