Cataloguin De Uses Of Language

Cataloguing the Uses of Language
A helpful scheme for analyzing the uses of language involves five broad categories:
the informative, the evocative, the expressive, the evaluative, and theperformative.
These categories are not mutually exclusive. A sentence may be used in more than one
way on any given occasion. Furthermore, it may be possible to account for our uses of
language usingfewer than five categories. These particular categories, however, will aid
us in focusing upon the uses that are immediately subject to the tools of logic.
The categories which logicians use tostudy language are similar to, but not
identical with, the categories which grammarians use. Grammarians have divided
sentences into the categories of declarative, imperative, interrogative, andexclamatory.
These tell us how sentences are punctuated, but do not always tell us how they are used.
The Informative Use
What we express, when using language informatively, can be judged trueor false.
We may not know which it is, but we know it is one or the other. For example, consider
the sentence, "There are intelligent life forms in other galaxies." It may be the case thatthere are no life forms of any kind in any other galaxy. If so, the sentence expresses
something false. There may be myriad forms of life throughout the universe, many of
which are far beyond us inintelligence. If so, the sentence expresses something true.
Either way, it is an informative use of language because the sentence expresses
something that is either true or false.
A sentenceused informatively is usually, but not always, a declarative sentence. If
we wish not only to inform, but also to add emphasis to the information, we might use an
exclamatory sentence. Arhetorical question may be used informatively. A worker might
say to the foreperson, "Is it already noon?" The purpose is not to inquire, but to tell the
foreperson that it is time to stop for a...