Keelefilosoofia raamat
"In 1931, Adolf Hitler made a visit to the United States, in the course of
which . . . " [You get the idea.]
And this list is infinite or potentially so. Of course, this example specifies the
meanings of English sentences in English (and so it sounds a bit uninterest-
ing), but we must also be able to do the same for other languages:
"Der Schnee ist weiss" means [in German] that snow is white.
"Das Gras ist grün" means that grass is green.
"Die Poltergeisten representieren . . . " [etc.]
How might a theory of English or a theory of German generate such a
list? Notice first that, corresponding to our ability to understand long novel
sentences, we have the ability to determine those sentences' truth-values
if we know enough facts. For example, if I happen to know that Katherine
Dienes' "Ave Maria" setting employs chant segments, drones, overlapping
"ora pro nobis" figures, and other devices to suggest the sonority of medieval