What can the word sentences tell us
about the nature of English language?
When I hear the word sentences,
my mind is immediately forced to make a choice...
without usually being aware of it.
It goes through certain options and almost instantaneously, the choice is made. This happens not only with me, but with all who understand English when they encounter certain words in the language.
In my case, for the word sentences the choice would be from the following alternatives. I would ask myself...
Is the speaker or writer referring to punishments allotted to criminals by judges at the end of certain legal procedures in a court of law?
Is he or she discussing philosophy or theology and referring to Peter Lombard's books? We often refer to the collection as just 'Sentences' and to him as the 'Master of Sentences.'
Is the speaker or writer referring to something which people make up by putting words together?
When someone says that in a certain State, the judges give harsh sentences, I know he or she does not mean that the grammar of the judges' utterances is unpleasant. I understand that they mean the punishments alloted are severe.
When theologians refer to Peter Lombard as the Master of the Sentences, I know that they are not trying to say that Peter Lombard was an excellent grammarian, though he must have been one! People in those days really knew their grammar, unlike large groups of people today who don't.
Be that as it may, but that brings me to the two points I want to make...
In this Site, we are in the world of language and grammar. Here, the word 'sentences' means some word-groupings which have certain syntactic or semantic features. The whole section on English sentences is created to give you sufficient knowledge about them.
Here is the more important point. Those who are learning English should take it as a way of life that in English you cannot expect one-to-one correspondence between...
words and meanings,
words and spelling,
words and pronunciation.
Hence, having to judge the context (what is said where and when) is an experience a student of English will often encounter on his learning journey.
