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Mood and Language-Game

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Philosophical Logic

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 20))

Abstract

Consider the following sentences:

  1. (1)

    You live here now.

  2. (2)

    Live (you) here now!

  3. (3)

    Do you live here now?

These three sentences have something in common, which, following Wittgenstein’s terminology, I call the sentence-radical 1 ; what is different in each of them I call the modal element. The sentence-radical signifies the descriptive content of the sentence, the modal element signifies its mood.

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References

  1. Cf. L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations t p. 11, and E. Stenius, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus: A Critical Exposition, pp. 159–162. In accordance with the terminology of the latter book, I speak here of ‘sentences’ and ‘sentence-radicals’, though ‘statements’ and ‘statement-radicals’ would perhaps be more in accordance with modern philosophical usage. In the Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein’s term Satzradikal is rendered as ‘proposition-radical’.

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  2. Cf. G. Pitcher, The Philosophy of Wittgenstein, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964, p. 253.

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  3. Cf. this paragraph with W. Stegmüller, Hauptströmungen der Gegenwartsphilosophie, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 584–585.

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  4. Cf. Stenius, loc. cit., pp. 160–161.

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  5. Cf. Charles Morris, Signs, Language and Behavior, New York 1946, pp. 5–6. Morris does not give the utterance quoted in the text in extenso.

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  6. L. Bloomfield, Language, London 1935, pp. 22ff.

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  7. L. Bloomfield, Language, London 1935, p. 26.

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  8. Cf. Stenius, Op. cit., p. 167ff.

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  9. In respect of the idea that speaking the truth can, in a sense, be regarded as a semantic rule, I am indebted to dr. H. Johansen of Copenhagen.

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Authors
  1. Erik Stenius
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Western Ontario, Canada

    J. W. Davis , D. J. Hockney  & W. K. Wilson ,  & 

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© 1969 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Stenius, E. (1969). Mood and Language-Game. In: Davis, J.W., Hockney, D.J., Wilson, W.K. (eds) Philosophical Logic. Synthese Library, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9614-0_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9614-0_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-9616-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-9614-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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