1.1.2. Predication as a means of sense catenation (chaining).

How is sense made? What links up our thinking and actual speech? Can the perfectly adjusted mental mechanisms of the mother tongue be applied to learning a second language? At the attempt to answer questions like that, we do thought experiments to make reflection and speech techniques explicit and manageable in the light of the knowledge and expectations of the learners.

Here is an important conclusion to be drawn: “noun” communication is possible if and only if we can retrieve skipped predicates required or allowed by a specific fact or situation which we always do explicitly (in oral speech) or implicitly (in the form of our inner understanding). In case we cannot figure out details specifying names the latter sound as meaningful words but make no sense. Thus, sense making might be specified as predication – the act of thinking and saying anything about a thing (also entity, noun, subject agent, object, argument, (concrete) thing). Predicates imply all words giving information about the thing. That is why we can call them information words. Study the following examples.

“Place” is not only about location. (“place” is used as a name for its identification)

Keep your documents in a safe place. (The word “place” gets more specified when preceded by the predicate “safe”: more detail (info) is given)

It’s hard to find a place to park. (The word “place” gets more specified when followed by the predicate “to park”: more detail (info) is given about the purpose of the noun)

It isn’t a place. It is the place to be. (The-article shows that the speaker has a high opinion of the place in question; according to the speaker, it is the best place to attend)

This is a great place for a holiday. (The word “place” acquires more predicates, and the listener gets more info, correspondingly.

There is still a place left on the course. (an opportunity for someone to take the course in question).

1.2. Assignments

1.2.1. What is the speaker’s / speakers’ problem (the problem specified in the message)? Name it in the form of a noun phrase.

e.g. The speaker: My car? So much hassle! Insurance, tax, repairs

You can say: The speaker’s problem? His car, of course.

1. Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Talks and discussions. Any net results?

2. The first draft version. More and more contributions. Any final version for the press?

3. An educated guess or a hypothesis? A working hypothesis?

4. Facts, facts, facts. Empirical data. Against a complete absence of any structure or system.

5. Grammar. A wince-making word, like ‘overdraft’.

6. Bookshelves! Filing cabinets! Piles of folders! Heaps of draft paper. Rough drafts. First drafts. Final drafts?

7. Questions! A whole raft of daft questions.

8. – What do you want?

– A favor.

– A favor. Are you serious?

1.2.2. Make mini-dialogues imitating the pattern:

– Work, work, work… No time for fun ever!

– Vexed issue really. / Highly controversial issue. / A deep psychological problem. / Anticipated / unanticipated situation. / Quite a common case. / Such is routine. Etc.

1.2.3. Choose the closest association. In this task, you will give definitions matching proper synonyms given in the second and fourth columns of Table 1. Before you start doing so, study the following excerpt and reflect on it.

A Nugget of Thought

According to S.Pinker, the best way to appreciate what nouns mean is to begin with some examples that seem to mean nothing at all. Think about these sentences (from the examples collected by A. Wierzbicka):

Boys will boys. A deal is a deal. A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

These sentences look like empty tautologies, but of course they are not. They are a way to say that some entity has the essential qualities of its kind. “A deal is a deal” means that once a deal is made it cannot be cancelled or reversed and is to be very firm. Actually “is a deal” is the predicate of the subject “a deal”. The predicate conveys the information stated above. Thus, in the X is X formula the first X and the second X mean different things. The first X refers to something and serves as a pointer to an entity in the world that the hearer must identify. The second X describes the first one by definition or stereotype. That is, the second X is predicated of the first one. The distinction between referring and predicating is basic to any language.

It does not mean, though, that we should confine ourselves to the formula presented. Your task is to give descriptions based on meanings that are not absolutely identical but do not change the truth conditions of a specific sentence.

e.g. “Problem” might be specified as “question or difficulty”.

1	“Problem”	is	“natural ability, skill”.
2	“Issue”	is used especially about	“effort”.
3	“Chance”	denotes	“process; way of doing something”.
4	“Necessity”	shows	“desire; ambition; hope”.
5	“Possibility”	signifies	“aim”.
6	“Probability”	is designated as	“matter; matter in question”.
7	“Procedure”	indicates	“capacity”.
8	“Ability”	implies	“ability”.
9	“Capability”	stands for	“cause”.
10	“Power”	involves	“question; difficulty”.
11	“Demand”	means	“likelihood”.
12	“Attempt”	can be named as	“wish, hope, yearning”.
13	“Reason”	might be specified as	“opportunity”.
14	“Desire”	amounts to	“need”.
15	“Intention”	represents	“requirement”.
16	“Aspiration”	typifies/is a typical example of	“chance”.