The Thoughts Of Russell Vs Systemic Functional Linguistics [6]

Russell (1961: 775-6):

The first question is: What sort of thing is 'true' or 'false'?  The simplest answer would be: a sentence. … Sentences are true or false as the case may be, because they are 'significant', and their significance depends upon the language used. … Sentences in different languages may have the same significance, and it is the significance, not the words, that determines whether the sentence is 'true' or 'false'.  When you assert a sentence, you express a 'belief', which may be equally well expressed in a different language.  The 'belief' whatever it may be, is what is 'true' or 'false' or 'more or less true'.  Thus we are driven to an investigation of belief.

Blogger Comment:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, semantically, such sentences realise a type of proposition, statement, and are thus enactments of interpersonal meaning.  Here the concern is not with the truth of a proposition, but consensus about its validity, which is negotiated in dialogue (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 146).  Predication is not an experiential relation, but 'an interpersonal relation, enacting the form of exchange between speaker and listener' (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 148).

Ideationally, propositions are the ideas that are projected by cognitive mental processes, in contradistinction to proposals, which are the ideas that are projected by desiderative mental processes.