Statement

From Nordan Symposia
(Redirected from Statements)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Lighterstill.jpg

Towncriersm.jpg

Definitions

  • 1 : something stated: as a : a single declaration or remark : assertion
b : a report of facts or opinions
  • 2 : the act or process of stating or presenting orally or on paper
  • 3 : proposition
  • 4 : the presentation of a theme in a musical composition
  • 5 : a summary of activity in a financial account over a particular period of time
  • 6 : an opinion, comment, or message conveyed indirectly usually by nonverbal means <monuments are statements in form and space — O. B. Hardison, Jr.>
  • 7 : an instruction in a computer program

Media

A press release, news release, media release, or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks. Commercial press-release distribution services are also used to distribute them.

The use of a press release is common in the field of public relations, the aim of which is to attract favorable media attention to public relations professional's client and/or provide publicity for products or events marketed by those clients. A press release provides reporters with the basics they need to develop a news story. Press releases can announce a range of news items such as: scheduled events, personal promotions, awards, news products and services, sales and other financial data, accomplishments, etc. They are often used in generating a feature story or are sent for the purpose of announcing news conferences, upcoming events or change in corporation.

A press statement is information supplied to reporters. This is an official statement or account of a news story that is specially prepared and issued to newspapers and other news media for them to make known to the public.

Logic

In logic a statement is a declarative sentence that is either true or false. A statement is distinct from a sentence in that a sentence is only one formulation of a statement, whereas there may be many other formulations expressing the same statement. The term "statement" may to refer to a sentence or the idea expressed by a sentence. Philosopher of language, Peter Strawson has advocated the use of the term "statement" in preference to proposition.

Examples of sentences that are (or make) statements:

"Socrates is a man."
"A triangle has three sides."
"Paris is the capital of Spain."

The first two (make statements that) are true, the third is (or makes a statement that is) false.

Examples of sentences that are not (or do not make) statements:

"Who are you?"
"Run!"
"Greeness perambulates"
"I had one grunch but the eggplant over there."

The first two examples are not declarative sentences and are therefore (or do not make) statements. The third and fourth are declarative sentences but, lacking meaning, are neither true nor false and therefore are not (or do not make) statements.

Linguistics

In the field of linguistics, a sentence —an expression in natural language— is often defined to indicate a grammatical and lexical unit consisting of one or more words that represent distinct concepts. A sentence can include words grouped meaningfully to express a statement, question, exclamation, request or command.[1]

As with all language expressions, sentences contain both semantic and logical elements (words, parts of speech), and also include action symbols that indicate sentence starts, stops, pauses, etc. In addition, sentences also contain properties distinct to natural language, such as characteristic intonation and timing patterns . Sentences are generally characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb, e.g. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".

Philosophy

A proposition is a sentence expressing something true or false. In philosophy, particularly in logic, a proposition is identified ontologically as an idea, concept, or abstraction whose token instances are patterns of symbols, marks, sounds, or strings of words.[1] Propositions are considered to be syntactic entities and also truthbearers. The existence of propositions in the abstract sense, as well as the existence of "meanings", is disputed by some philosophers. Where the concept of a "meaning" is admitted, its nature is controversial.

In earlier texts writers have not always made it sufficiently clear whether they are using the term proposition in sense of the words or the "meaning" expressed by the words.[2] To avoid the controversies and ontological implications, the term sentence is often now used instead of proposition to refer to just those strings of symbols that are truthbearers, being either true or false under an interpretation. Strawson advocated the use of the term "statement", and this is the current usage in mathematical logic.