SILGLOBALGlossary of
Linguistic Terms

Glossary term R

Relational Proposition

Definition

A relational proposition is a proposition that

  • arises as an implicature between two propositions or groups of propositions that are related by an interpropositional relation
  • expresses a relation
  • arises even where the relation is not signaled in the text, as by a conjunction, and
  • produces coherence in the text.

Examples

I’m hungry. Let’s go to the Fuji Gardens.

There is a relational proposition in this sequence that expresses a solutionhood relation and means "our going to Fuji Gardens is a (partial) solution to my problem of being hungry."

See also

Implicature Interpropositional Relation Conjunction

Sources 3

  1. Mann and Thompson 1983, 9–13, 16–17
  2. Mann and Thompson 1985, 1–3
  3. Mann and Thompson 1986, 7–9
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