Language and Logic

Functions of Language

The formal patterns of correct reasoning can all be conveyed through ordinary language, but then so can a lot of other things. In fact, we use language in many different ways, some of which are irrelevant to any attempt to provide reasons for what we believe. It is helpful to identify at least three distinct uses of language:

Informative Use of Language involves an effort to communicate some content. This kind of use presumes that the content of what is being communicated is actually true, so it will be our central focus in the use of logic.

Expressive Use of Language, on the other hand, intends only to vent some feeling, or perhaps to evoke some feeling from other people. Although such uses don't convey any information, they do serve an important function in everyday life, since how we feel sometimes matters as much asor more thanwhat we hold to be true.

Directive Use of Language aims to cause or to prevent some overt action by a human agent. The point in this case is to make someone perform (or forswear) a particular action. This is a significant linguistic function, too, but like the expressive use, it doesn't always relate logically to the truth of our beliefs.

Literal and Emotive Meaning

Even single words or short phrases can exhibit the distinction between purely informative and partially expressive uses of language. Many of the most common words and phrases of any language have both a literal or descriptive meaning that refers to the way things are and an emotive meaning that expresses some (positive or negative) feeling about them. Thus, the choice of which word to use in making a statement can be used in hopes of evoking a particular emotional response.

This is a natural function of ordinary language, of course. We often do wish to convey some portion of our feelings along with information. There is a good deal of poetry in everyday communication, and poetry without emotive meaning is pretty dull. But when we are primarily interested in establishing the truthas we are when assessing the logical merits of an argumentthe use of words laden with emotive meaning can easily distract us from our purpose.

Kinds of Agreement and Disagreement

In fact, an excessive reliance on emotively charged language can create the appearance of disagreement between parties who do not differ on the facts at all, and it can just as easily disguise substantive disputes under a veneer of emotive agreement. It is often valuable, then, to recognize the levels of agreement or disagreement at work in any exchange of views. That will not always resolve the dispute between two parties, of course, but it will ensure that they don't waste their time on an inappropriate method of argument or persuasion.

Emotively Neutral Language

For our purposes in assessing the validity of deductive arguments and the reliability of inductive reasoning, it will be most directly helpful to eliminate emotive meaning entirely whenever we can. Although it isn't always easy to achieve emotively neutral language in every instance, and the result often lacks the colorful character of our usual public discourse, it is worth the trouble and insipidity because it makes it much easier to arrive at a settled understanding of what is true.