OpenLab #3: “Sentences”

Due Thursday, 9/18/14.  For this week’s writing assignment, take a look at the picture below called “Sentences.”  Read every sentence in the picture.  As you read, pay attention to your own stream of consciousness – what are the thoughts that pop into your head?  For full credit, respond to all 4 of the following items.

  1. Record two observations about the sentences in the picture – what do you notice / what’s something you find interesting / what popped into your head / what stood out.
  2. Choose one of the sentences in the picture (do NOT choose the same sentence as anyone else).  Type the sentence out “in quotes”, and then answer the following questions:
    a. Is it a statement (as discussed by Prof. Park in class on Thursday )?  Explain why or why not.
    b. Is it true or false? Explain in everyday English why or why not.
  3. Make up a sentence that you believe would fit into this picture.  Tell us the sentence, and then tell us whether it is a statement, and whether it is true or false.
  4. What connection (if any) does this assignment have to do with the work we are doing in class?
“Sentences” by Flickr user Eldeem

32 thoughts on “OpenLab #3: “Sentences”

  1. 1) I noticed that the majority of sentences starts out with “This sentence”. I also noticed that each individual sentence is unique in it’s own way by what is stated, like for example one sentence that says “this sentence has only one spellng error” is correct because it does have one error which is from the word “spelling” which was type incorrectly in the picture. What stood out to me was the capitalized and lower case letters in the sentence. I thought it looked pretty cool. What also stood out was the sentence written in French. It’s almost not noticeable because it’s written small but you can tell it’s written in French, since French uses c’nest. What popped into my head was wow these sentences are funny and that some sentences don’t make any sense. I also thought what was the point of this picture.
    2) “This sentence laughs at those who turn their heads upside down to read it” I believe this is a statement because this can either be true or false and it shows an idea. I believe that this statement is false because it’s unreal for a sentence to laugh at someone. A sentence doesn’t show physical emotion.
    3) This sentence is trying to make a sentence. I believe this sentence is a statement because this sentence can either be true or false and it states an idea that the sentence is making a sentence. I believe this statement is true due to fact that the statement is a sentence.
    4) The picture above and what we are learning in class both connects in that it deals with logic. In class we learned about truth tables and how to tell if a statement is true or false. This is to give practice of how to tell the difference between a statement and what’s not a statement. It also gives practice in determining whether the statement is true or false by breaking the pieces down. This is to better understand logic and truth tables.

  2. 1. One observation that I notice is that these sentences/phrases are either in black or a turquoise font. Certain sentences stand out in the picture because they are also expressed in large or small fonts. ANOTHER observation that I found is that the majority of these phrases have the word “sentence” in them. I found that to be interesting because the author is trying to tell us something. Or possibly the author is trying to give us a message. The one thing that stood out in my opinion are the sentences with the largest font because they were the ones I read first.
    2.I chose The sentence “This sentence has no capitalized Vowels”. I believe this is a statement because it can be answered in true or false. The correct answer for this statement is true because if you look at the picture above you will see everything except for the vowels in capital letters.
    3.The sentence I would write so it can fit into this picture would be “This is the ULTIMATE sentence, it is the longest”. I believe that my sentence is a statement because it can be answered in true or false. I can say that my sentence is false because there is another sentence above in this picture that is longer than mine.
    4. This work had a lot to deal with our class because it consists us students of thinking “outside the box”. These sentences weren’t any regular sentences that we can just guess what they mean right away. We had to use our minds and try to identify what each sentence meant. The main connection with this assignment and our class is that we had to use logic.

    1. I agree, usually the larger fonts tend to stand out more and when you look at the picture you look directly at the sentence that has the larger font. I also agree that the colors are in black and turquois and I agree with the fact that the author is trying to send a message. I like your sentence “This is the ULTIMATE sentence, it is the longest” and I also agree that this is false because if you look at the picture there is another sentence that is longer then the one you created.

    2. I like the way your observations reflect your internal thought process. Your sentence provides a good example, and I agree it’s false (it makes me wonder whether it would be true or false if you just included the first part “This is the ULTIMATE sentence.”) Great!

    3. I totally agree with Joseph that that these sentences are not like any regular sentences that we just look at , but these sentences where requiring us to read them many times so we can determine whether they are statements of not and whether they are true or false. I also think that you are right that the main connection is the use of logic.

  3. 1. The first thing that I notice is that every sentence is constructed by using different theme fonts and the size of the letters varies. The second noticeable thing is that this picture only contains two colors: black and greenish blue. Different fonts and colors ingeniously separate each sentence in an unusual way, which makes the picture more elegant.
    2. There is a sentence in the picture saying: “THIS SENTENCE DOES NOT EXIST UNTIL IT IS READ.” I do believe it is a statement because it asserts a proposition and it can be either true or false. I think this statement is true because it is a conditional statement and the antecedent-“this sentence does not exist” is negative, therefore, the consequence is always true according to the conditional truth table.
    3. THIS SENTENCE HAS THREE S IN IT. It is a statement because it is a sentence and it is definitely true.
    4. This assignment offers us a new perspective toward everything in our lives. Before using the mathematical logic perspective, this picture is only a picture with a bunch disorganized sentences, and I often defined it as art just because I did not get the purpose of its existence. Now, using the logic perspective, it becomes something else. I am able to examine its accuracy and it starts making sense for me. Therefore, the procedure of appreciating this picture enhances what I’ve learned in class, and it becomes a real application between logic and life.

    1. Jian, great response! In part 2, your analysis is excellent but in fact the sentence is not a conditional – it’s tricky, because it seems to discuss a cause-effect relationship, but it doesn’t have the form of an “if…then” statement (or one of the related forms). Your sentence example is quite clever and made me laugh – sweet.

    2. I agree with Jian in that every sentence is constructed in a different way whether its is a different font, color, size, etc. I like Jian sentence because it makes you think about whether the sentence is true or false and if it is a statement. This actually made it more clear of how to tell whether the sentence is a statement or not.

    3. I agree with jian about the font size and the different colors the picture has because i noticed the same things. I also like your sentence and how it is proven to be right, and i also agree with you that this picture and the class has a connection in the use of logic.

  4. The first thing I noticed was that ‘This Sentence’ begins all the statements written in the picture with every letter capitalized except one statement. I found interesting that there is one statement written in another language even though it is small it stands put because everything else is in English.
    I chose “This sentence wants a hug”. It is a statement because it is saying something that can be either true or false. I think the statement is true because it is located at the top of the picture in the corner alone. There is only a statement to left of it but not nearly enough to fully surround the statement so it isn’t alone.
    THIS SENTENCE IS ABOUT NOTHING. It is a statement. My statement is true because there is no verb or anything of interest about it so it really is about nothing.
    This picture has a connection with our class because we are using what we learned from logic about statements to decide if they are indeed statements and whether they are true or false. We are also reading the statements and thinking about where they come from and how they all fit into the picture together. ie: metacognition.

    1. I agree with Stacy when she said that the words “this sentence” begins with all the statements written in this picture. Also how one of the sentences stand out more than the other because it is in a different language and it is very small as well. Her sentence that she made “My sentence is about nothing” is indeed a statement because it can be answered in true or false. In this case I say it is true because it is most indeed about nothing. Last but not least, I also agree with Stacy when she said that this picture has a connection with what we learned in class if statements are either true or false.

    2. Hi Stacy – I love your choice of sentence in part 2, and I think your argument for why it is true is well reasoned (it’s a very interesting contrast to Julia’s argument above, which is also well reasoned but reaches an opposite conclusion – there is a philosophical debate to be had here over whether sentences can share human experiences). I think your creation “This sentence is about nothing” is great, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s true – when I read it, I feel like it’s about something. I don’t have a good clear argument for why I feel this way, though – I’ll be interested to hear from others in the class.

  5. I noticed “Interjection!”, which wasn’t a sentence but rather an exclamation of an emotion. I thought of it as a breaker of the pattern of sentences. I also noticed “This sentence is an aharmanite.” It caused me to actually research what aharmanite actually means- apparently a pathological liar to such an extreme degree that he/she never tells the truth (as told in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade”).

    “This sentence, though a terrible liar, is also typed in a nice red font.”
    a. Yes it is actually a compound statement.
    b. The sentence is truthful in that it lies and it is a falsehood that it is typed in red, when it is clearly typed in blue. For this statement to be true both simple statements must be.

    “.SDRAWKCAB DAER TSEB SI ECNETNES SIHT”
    It is a statement and it is true (at least I believe it is).

    These sentences are connected with the work we are doing in class because most are statements which we can assign a value of true or false. Some of these do not qualify as statements, and we cannot assign such values as a result.

  6. 1. The first thing that I noticed was the sentences in the picture were typed either in black or blue with varied font sizes and somehow tried to squeeze all the sentences in the space. I think the sentence that said it had no capitalized vowels stood out because I remember I used to write random words on my rough-book because it had some style in it and also looks unique when you see it for the first time. Some people used to tell me that you could tell about a person in general just by looking at their handwriting. Another sentence that I found a little too cute is “This sentence wants a hug”.
    2. I chose the sentence “This sentence is almost illegibly small.”- I believe this sentence is a statement because it can be true or false and turns out that this sentence is true. Every sentence in this picture makes sense in its own way, for example “This sentence is stretched” It is a true statement because it’s definitely stretched at the two ends just by the look of itself and when you compare with how the other sentences look, it proves that this particular sentence is elongated.
    3. The sentence I would like to make is, ” I believe that this sentence would fit into this picture.” This sentence is a statement because it can either true or false. It doesn’t have to be necessarily true because it might fit or it might not, but definitely arguable.
    4. This assignment is definitely helpful to me using logic because it proves you that certain sentences are statements with a purpose even though it might not look like it at first. I found this assignment to be tricky and you just got to be careful to spot the purpose of the sentences and then determine if it suits or fits to be a statement.

    1. Now personally, I think the sentence you might mean is “This sentence fits in its allotted space.” or “This sentence fits in.” The words “I believe” might break the trend occurring inside the picture.

      And sentences?… Cute?

      1. Based on what I learned with Prof. Park and Prof. Reitz , I agree the words “I believe” maybe the cause for the ambiguity and now its clear to all as to why it may be. And yes it breaks the trend used in the picture as well. I was honestly hesitating to put this sentence up but then its all good, I learnt something!

  7. 1) By looking at this picture , i noticed a lot of things. Every sentence starts with “THIS SENTENCE” and these words are capitalize in every statement. I also noticed that there is one sentence in the middle that is not English and i noticed that there are different font size in each sentence than the other.I also noticed the different colors the sentence are, blue and black.
    2) I chose ” This sentence was made just to fill space” , i think this is a statement because a statement can be either true or false, and i think this statement is false because this sentence is written with a very small font on the side of the page so it is not filling much space and taking it out will not make change to the picture.
    3) My sentence is ” THIS SENTENCE is written in English”, It is a statement because it can be true or false and i think this is a true statement because it is written in English language.
    4) there is a connection between this picture and what we do in class because we are using true tables to determine whether they are true or false which is same here we looking at sentences and determining the same thing. Also because i think we are using logic in both of them.

    1. hi marina,
      I have an opposite opinion than you. You said “I think this statement is false…”.Even though the sentence was very small, it filled it in space. The size of the sentence in here does not count.

  8. 1. Frist of all, this is an art work because every word have different size, some of it have different color, and like a puzzle. Second, it is very clear that the picture has a main topic “sentence”. For me, the art work is telling us to be creative, and think out of the box. What if we change the topic to be building, car, and airplane? It all works in this picture. This is a beautiful art work because it drive you crazy to think the purpose of this art. Sometime the artists may not know the purpose of the art, but they just did it.

    2. “THIS SENTENCE LAUGHS AT THOSE WHO TURN THEIR HEADS UPSIDE-DOWN TO READ IT”
    a. It is a true and false statement because it is in “if condition”
    b. First, can a sentence laughs? I have never seen it. It is a true and false condition statement, so the statement is false. However, if we re-write it to be “THIS ARTIST LAUGHS AT THOSE WHO TURN THEIR HEADS UPSIDE-DOWN TO READ IT, and it will be true condition statement.

    3 “This sentence want his name” it will fit into picture because it does not make sense that sentence want his name, but it is what this artist trying to do .it is a false statement

    4. To understand weather is or is not a statement, and distinguish between true or false statement.

  9. 1) I noticed that there are sentences covering every inch of this blue rectangle. I also noticed that most of these sentences make no sense. One thing that I found interesting was that all the sentences didn’t say anything significant. When I first saw the picture I thought it was the cover of a book, I thought that the “book” had something to do with sentences since that’s the first word that caught my eye. What stood out to me was the word sentence, like I said I thought it would have something to do with sentences.
    2) “This sentence was made to fill space.” I believe this is a statement because it stating the purpose of the sentence. I believe this statement is true because the sentence is doing what it is stating.
    3) A sentence I would create would be “This sentence has seven words in it.” I state this is a statement because it is stating something and it can be true or false. This is true because if you count all the words in the sentence there are indeed seven words.
    4) The connection this assignment has to the work that we are doing in class is that it is testing our understanding of logic when it comes to identifying statements.

  10. First thing I have notice in this picture that there is a lot of sentences and words written in different size and style. I find quite interesting how the picture looks and the way sentences and words are placed. It reminds me of a puzzle.
    “This sentence likes to keep its reader in,” this is a statement. A statement is either true or false and I believe this statement is true.
    My makeup sentence is “This sentence wants attention.” It is a statement because it can be either true or false and my statement is true.
    This assignment made us to think carefully to find an answer through logic. Also to help us understand through practice what a statement means.

  11. naturally like your web-site but you have to test the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will surely come back again.|

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