http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball0888
/lectures
/logic
22 November, 1963
Nightmare on Elm
Street
?
What the
fuck?
I mean, er..
what the
fucking fuck?
We are young men and women
of high spirit and noble ideals.
We are philosophers, interested
in the semantics of English ‘if’.
What in God’s name are we
doing in this dreadful place?
Oswald Sentences
• [A] If Oswald didn’t shoot Kennedy, then
somebody else did.
• [B] If Oswald doesn’t shoot Kennedy, then
somebody else will.
• [C] If Oswald hadn’t shot Kennedy, then
somebody else would have.
The scientific study of:
English
Grammar
Miss
Anne
Widdecombe
Miss Anne Widdecombe at the
Conservative Party Conference
Miss Anne Widdecombe with
her first boyfriend
Miss Anne Widdecombe being
prepared for Room 101
"Schoolchildren are no longer
drilled in the proper use of the
infinitive. They are no longer
trained in the correct
deployment of the subjunctive
mood. Nor have they been
schooled to identify the vast
array of English tenses - the
perfect, the imperfect, the
pluperfect, the future
perfect...."
A Counterblast
• English has NO infinitive
• English has NO moods – neither indicative
nor subjunctive nor any other
• English has but TWO tenses – present
and past
" Space... the final frontier ...
These are the voyages of the
Starship Enterprise. Its fiveyear mission: to explore
strange new worlds, to seek
out new life and new
civilizations, to boldly go
where no man has gone
before...".
to boldly go
boldly to go
to go boldly
to boldly go
•M
•I
•S
•S
•Madness!
•Ignorance!
•Stupidity!
•Snobbery!
• ire audacter
• aller courageusement
• avanzare con coraggio
• andar intrépidamente
• sattwena gantum
• tapfer zu gehen
Latin:
verb stem + infinitive
ending
One word
English:
Particle (‘to’) + verb
base
Two separate words
Ambiguity
We must have
the worst JCR
food in Oxford
That dart might
have landed in
baby’s eye
If she misses the
last bus, the
Countess will
walk
If she missed the
last bus, the
Countess would
walk
Sentence
vs.
Message
Truth is not a
property of
Sentences
Truth is not a
property of
Sentences
Truth is not a
property of
Sentences
Truth is a property
of Messages
Message
determines
Sentence