Statement

A Statement is an communicable entity that expresses information (be a meaning carrier).

• Context:
  • It can range from being a Real Statement (such as a factual statement) to being an Unreal Statement (such as a counterfactual conditional).
  • It can range from being a Formal Statement to being an Informal Statement.
  • It can range from being a Declarative Statement to being a Query Statement.
  • It can range from being a Human Processable Statement to being a Machine Processable Statement.
  • It can range from being a Non-Conditional Statement to being a Conditional Statement.
  • ...
  • It can express types of meaning, such as:
    • Factual Meanings describing reality
    • Hypothetical Meanings exploring possibilities
    • Prescriptive Meanings giving directions
    • Evaluative Meanings making judgments
    • Performative Meanings accomplishing actions
  • It can serve functions, such as:
    • conveying information
    • expressing beliefs
    • making arguments
    • issuing commands
    • asking questions
  • It can take forms, such as:
    • Verbal Statements in spoken language
    • Written Statements in text
    • Formal Statements in mathematical notation
    • Programmatic Statements in code
    • Visual Statements through images
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Declarative Statements, such as:
    • "Paris is the capital of France."
    • "Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius."
  • Query Statements, such as:
    • "What time is the meeting?"
    • "How does photosynthesis work?"
  • Command Statements, such as:
    • "Please close the door."
    • "print("Hello World");"
  • Conditional Statements, such as:
    • "If it rains, bring an umbrella."
    • "When x > 0, y increases."
  • Logical Statements, such as:
    • "All humans are mortal."
    • "P implies Q."
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Concept, which represents an idea rather than expressing information
  • a Randomly Generated Sentence, which lacks intentional meaning
  • an Illusion, which creates false perception rather than conveying information
  • a Noise, which contains no structured information
  • an Incomprehensible Utterance, which fails to communicate meaning
• See: Expression, Truth Condition, Tautological Statement, Proposition, Sentence.

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References

2013

• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/statement
  1. A declaration or remark.
  2. A presentation of opinion or position.

2009

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=statement
  • S: (n) statement (a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc) "according to his statement he was in London on that day"
  • S: (n) argument, statement (a fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true) "it was a strong argument that his hypothesis was true"
  • S: (n) statement ((music) the presentation of a musical theme) "the initial statement of the sonata"
  • S: (n) statement (a nonverbal message) "a Cadillac makes a statement about who you are"; "his tantrums are a statement of his need for attention"
  • S: (n) affirmation, assertion, statement (the act of affirming or asserting or stating something)
  • S: (n) instruction, command, statement, program line ((computer science) a line of code written as part of a computer program)
  • S: (n) statement, financial statement (a document showing credits and debits)

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