1. Chapter 1: The Informative Function of Language

2. Statements ( pp. 2-4) Expressed by declarative sentences
True or false depending upon the way the world is
Criteria of truth
Is truth always important?
Contexts: “Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were friends.”
Claims regarding fictional characters are properly false. They are true only within the context of the work from which they are taken.

3. Ambiguity (pp. 4-6) Words often have several meanings.
Poorly constructed sentences can have several meanings: “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don’t know.” Animal Crackers
Ambiguities must be eliminated to determine the truth of a statement.

4. Vagueness (pp. 7-8)
A word is vague if there are no determinate criteria for its application.
Examples: ‘big’, ‘many’, ‘hard’, ‘bald’
Metaphorical uses of words
Using hypothetical (conditional) statements to reduce vagueness
Vagueness must be reduced to determine whether a statement is true or false.

5. Factual and Verbal Disputes (pp. 9-10)
Factual disputes concern the way the world is.
Verbal disputes rest on ambiguities in language: once the ambiguity is recognized, the dispute disappears.