March 1987
1. There are two aspects to the logic of language:
- a. The logic of micro-language, of kernel sentences, which are the units of meaning in language.
- b. The logic of macro-language, of complex sentences, which are the units of truth-value in language.
2. Micro-language functions to create meaning units by the addition and subtraction of meaning patterns in kernel sentences, which are semantically incomplete sentences of the language.
3. There are four parts to a kernel sentence:
- a. A designator, pointing to the particularity of the subject pattern (class).
- b. A pattern name, designating the universality of the subject pattern (class).
- c. A copula, asserting the relationship between the subject pattern (class) and the predicate pattern (class).
- d. A pattern name, designating the universal aspect of the predicate class.
4. In a kernel sentence, a designated particular instance (pointed to by the designator) of a class, the subject (which is the class being operated upon) has added to or subtracted from it (the operation performed by the copula) another class or pattern (the predicate, or that which is added to or subtracted from the subject).
Examples:
- a. That ball is red.
- b. That ball is not red. (For this to be a kernel sentence, the subject “ball” must already have as part of its meaning or pattern the pattern of being red. The “red” aspect of the pattern is then subtracted in that kernel sentence.)
Though these sample sentences are grammatically complete, they are not yet semantically complete. Every well-formed kernel sentence must be grammatically complete.
5. A kernel sentence of the micro-language is changed into a sentence of the macro-language by the addition of three variables that make it semantically complete:
- a. Designation of the truth or falsity of the meaning of the kernel sentence.
- b. Designation of the spatial context in which the meaning of the kernel sentence is true or false.
- c. Designation of the temporal context in which the meaning of the kernel sentence is true or false. (If we humans develop a useful space-time continuum in which everything can be given unique space-time coordinates, then b. and c. above would collapse into a single variable.
Examples
- a. Kernel: This he is a liar.
- b. Truth-value: Default position: assertion of truth.
- c. Spatial limits: Here in this room.
- d. Temporal limits: Last five minutes.
- e. Translation: He just told a lie to me, and unless he repents, he will be and remain a liar henceforth, wherever he is.
6. Most human logical systems such as logic, class logic, propositional logic, etc., are operations upon kernel units of meaning taken as lumps. Sentences that use such logic are thus macro-language operations. Macro-language transactions are truth transaction, whereas micro-language transactions are meaning transactions. Aristotelian logic is a primitive micro-logic, or logic of meaning.