Here is a grammar/language tidbit that I’m sure that very few kossacks will have heard before—although I’ll bet a lot of you will latch on to it immediately.
In sentences we use words to mention the things picked out by the words. E.g., in the sentence
Tom is tall
we use the word
Tom
to mention or talk about Tom, the person.
Now suppose we wanted to talk about not the person Tom but the word
Tom
How would we do it?
Well, just as we use the word
Tom
to mention the person Tom, we need another word to talk about Tom’s name, i.e., to talk about the name
Tom
Philosophers and logicians use the 5-symbol word
‘Tom’
to talk about the 3-symbol word
Tom
So when we want to say that Tom’s first name consists of three letters, we will use the sentence
‘Tom’ consists of three letters
The superficially similar sentence,
Tom consists of three letters
is quite false: it says that the person Tom consists of three letters, when in fact he consists of a body, a mind, and who knows what else.
General Rule: If you want to mention something, to talk about that thing, then you need to use a name for it—where the name is not identical to the thing.
Specific Rule: when you want to talk about a linguistic expression, you need to use a word to refer to that expression. The word you use consists of a single quote, followed by the expression itself, followed by another single quote.
Thus, to talk about the 4-letter linguistic expression
Dogs
you should use the 6-letter word
‘Dogs’
To talk about the 14-letter linguistic expression (spaces count)
Dogs are smart
you should use the 16-letter word
‘Dogs are smart’
To mention the 66-letter linguistic expression
The word ‘Dodge’ consists of five occurrences of just four letters
you should use the 68-letter word
‘The word ‘Dodge’ consists of five occurrences of just four letters’
To mention the 1-letter linguistic expression
n
you should use the 3-letter word
‘n’
Practice: for each of the following sentences, indicate whether it’s true or whether it’s false. If there is sufficient interest, I’ll post answers in an update.
a) The great philosopher Aristotle was Greek.
b) ‘Aristotle’ is Greek.
c) It is true that snow is usually white.
d) It is true that ‘snow is usually white’.
e) Tom’s name is Tom.
f) ‘Tom’s name’ is ‘Tom’.
g) ‘Tom’ is ‘Tom’.
h) The name of ‘Tom’ is ‘‘Tom’’.
i) Tom is tall is true.
j) The 24th letter of the alphabet is x.
k) Two is even, but ‘two’ isn’t prime.
l) ‘Twain’ was a pseudonym of Clemens.
m) Twain was a pseudonym of ‘Clemens’.
n) ‘The Illiad’ is written in English.
o) For any x and y, x + y = y + x.
p) The English name of Mexico consists of six symbols.
q) The English name of ‘Mexico’ consists of six symbols.
r) ‘Tom’ refers to Tom.
s) ‘‘Tom’’ refers to ‘Tom’.
Thank you.