- Pro-sentence
A pro-sentence is a
function word or expression that substitutes for a whole sentence whose content is recoverable from the context. Pro-sentences are a kind ofpro-form s and are therefore anaphoric.In English, "
yes ", "no ", "okay " and "amen " are common pro-sentences. In response to the question "Does Mars have two moons?", the sentence "Yes" can be understood to abbreviate "Mars has two moons."Pro-sentences are sometimes seen as grammatical
interjection s, since they are capable of very limited syntactical relations. But they can also be classified as a distinctpart of speech , given that (other) interjections have meanings of their own and are often described as expressions offeeling s oremotion s.In some languages, the equivalents to "yes" and "no" may substitute not only a whole sentence, but also a part of it, either the subject and the
verb , or the verb and a complement, and can also constitute a subordinateclause .The Portuguese word "sim" ("yes") gives a good example:
:Q: Ela está em casa? A: Acredito "que sim". — Q: Is she at home? A: I believe "that she is" (literally, "that yes").:Ela não saiu de casa, mas "o John sim". — She didn't leave home, but "John did" (literally, "John yes").
In some languages, such as English, "yes" rebuts a negative question, whereas "no" affirms it. However, in Japanese, the equivalents of "no" ("iie", "uun", "(i)ya") rebut a negative question, whereas the equivalents of "yes" ("hai", "ee", "un") affirm it.
:Q: "Wakarimasen deshita ka" ("Did you not understand?"):A: "Hai, wakarimasen deshita" ("No, I didn't" – Literally "That's right, I didn't understand")
Some languages also have a specific word which rebuts a negative question. German has "doch"; French has "
si " ("not" to be confused with the Spanish word "sí", meaning "yes"). Neither has a clear English translation.:Q: "Bist Du nicht müde?" ("Aren't you tired?"):A: "Doch. Ich gehe bald schlafen." ("Yes. I'm about to go to sleep.")
In philosophy
The prosentential theory of
truth developed byDorothy Grover ,Nuel Belnap , andJoseph Camp , and defended more recently byRobert Brandom , holds that sentences like "p" is true" and "It is true that p" should not be understood as ascribing properties to the sentence "p", but as a pro-sentence whose content is the same as that of "p." Brandom calls " . . .is true" a pro-sentence-forming operator.References
* Grover, Belnap, Camp. "The Prosentential Theory of Truth", Philosophical Review 1970.
* Brandom, "Making it Explicit", 1994.
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