Comprehension

Why ‘Comprehension’?

• To make information your own• To understand how language can be

complex and confusing• To understand others better• To express yourself more clearly and

effectively

Why we often fail to comprehend

Complicated Writing

Strange Words

Connotations

Context & Perspective

Hot Babe?

Hot Babe?

My Nigga!

My Nigga?

Sentences have many different functions

• Ordinary questions• Interrogative questions• Commands / Directives• Requests• Rhetorical questions• Expletives• Performative utterances (or speech-acts)• Statements!

What is a statement?

Statements are the only kinds of sentences that can be TRUE or

FALSE, thus making them objects of evaluation

Fact vs. Opinion?

What are good opinions?

• Supported by facts• Based on experience• Developed through sound reasoning

• Statements are true when they correspond to reality

• Truth doesn’t depend on anyone’s beliefs• What a statement means depends on the

speaker, therefore truth of statement depends on what was meant

• Truth of some statements is easier to discover than others

• We must distinguish between statements being actually true and our knowing that they’re true

Degrees of Truth & Falsity?

• Najib is the Prime Minister of Malaysia (as at March 2010)

• Najib is a good Prime Minister• UFOs’ exist• Some people believe that UFOs’ exist

Qualifiers & Quantifiers

Qualifiers

• Weak confidence– Seems– Maybe– Perhaps– It could be the case that…

• Strong confidence– Definitely– Absolutely

Quantifier

• Universal– All– Every – Completely

• Particular– Some– Most– A few…

• Surely most of the people enjoyed the concert• More often than not your peers drag you down

rather than inspire you• The whole class was noisy!• Frequently he cannot find where he laid his tools

but he always knows where he set down his cup of coffee

• One never knows when one’s time is up; so one should always plan ahead by drawing a will

Examples