2.1: What is a Statement?

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Page ID: 21957

Bradley H. Dowden
California State University Sacramento

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Statements are what is said. More accurate, statements are things that are said that are either true or false. They are also called claims. Here is one: "The homicide rate in England was fifty times higher in the fourteenth century than it is today." Here is another: “Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system.” Both of these statements happen to be true. A statement that is especially important to us might be called a proposition, assertion, judgment, hypothesis, principle, thesis, or, in some situations, a law. Statements have to be capable of being true or false even if we don't know which. So, if you say, “Is it midnight?” then you've not made a statement. Suggestions, commands, and proposals aren’t statements either. The suggestion “We should get a new refrigerator,” and the command, “Stand back!” and the proposal, “Let’s quit studying,” are not statements. It would be very odd to call any of them “true” or “false.” The following are statements: “She suggested we should get a new refrigerator,” and “He said, 'Stand back!'”

Although there is a difference between a declarative sentence used to make a statement and the statement made with that declarative sentence, this book will often not honor that fine distinction and will speak of declarative sentences themselves as being statements.

Exercise $\PageIndex{1}$

Is the following sentence a statement?

The biggest question your pre-historic ancestors faced was, "Is that thing behind the bushes my next meal, or am I its next meal?"

Answer: Answer: The question itself is not a statement, but the larger sentence containing the question is. The larger sentence is used to make a statement about the question.

You can’t spot the claims if you don’t speak the language. In the passage below from a famous Valley girl, try to decide whether the phrase in italics is (used to make) a claim. You won't be able to figure this out if you don’t understand a little Valley-girl-ese.

So, I loan Whitney my copy of GQ, right, and she drops strawberry yogurt right on the cover, and like I could totally be so edged, but I tried to be cool.

To tell whether it's expressing a claim, you don't have to be able to figure out whether it's true, but only whether it could be─whether it's the sort of thing that might be true or might be false. The passage does make the claim. Its claim is that the speaker could be upset by Whitney's dropping strawberry yogurt on her copy of GQ Magazine.

In spotting statements or claims, you need to pay close attention to language. One of the following is a claim and the other is not. Which is which?

I promised to give you $5.
I promise to give you $5.