PROPOSITION

An abstract representation of a single unit of meaning: a mental record of the core meaning of the sentence without any of the interpretative and associative factors which the reader/listener might bring to bear upon it. Using a notation system derived from philosophical logic, propositions are often represented in the form of a predicate (generally a verb) followed by its arguments. The sentence The dog bit a passer-by would be represented as ‘BITE (dog, passer-by)’.

When a reader or listener derives linguistic information from a text, they do not retain it verbatim but convert it into conceptual form. A working assumption is made that this form consists of minimal units of meaning, linked together in a network. The sentence The man in the corner coughed might be regarded as containing two linked propositions: THE MAN WAS IN THE CORNER and THE MAN COUGHED. This assumption has been put to the test in experiments in which subjects are asked to identify words from recently seen sentences. Recall is faster when two words from the same sentence occur next to each other in a list; but it is faster still when the two adjacent words are drawn from within the same proposition.

Not all propositions in a text contribute equally to the message. A measure of a proposition’s relative importance is taken to be the extent to which it is recalled by readers. This typically ranges from 80 per cent for the most critical to around 30 per cent for those taken to be peripheral. Text structure is thus regarded by some as a hierarchy of propositions: a set of prominent macro-propositions, beneath which (like sub-headings in a table of contents) are grouped micro-propositions of diminishing degrees of importance.

 Allowance for individual interpretation is made in an important distinction between a proposition and a mental model. A mental model draws upon propositional meaning, but to it is added additional material which the reader brings to bear in the form of inferences from the text and world knowledge.

 See also: Meaning construction, Mental model

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مواضيع ذات صلة

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SIGNAL DETECTION THEORY

SIGN LANGUAGE

SHORT-TERM MEMORY

SHADOWING

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SENSATION

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SELF-MONITORING

SELECTIVE ADAPTATION

SEGMENT2 (vb.)