Franz Brentano_The True and the Evident.pdf

1. We speak in sentences.
II
THE EQUIVOCAL USE OF THE
TERM “EXISTENT”
(September 1904)
2. And we do this in order to indicate that there is something about which we have certain
thoughts or feelings. 4
3. “To indicate” is to make known to another person.
4. Only primary sentences are sentences in the logical sense.
5. These are the genuine sentences. 5 If I were to represent others dramatically, by quoting
them directly, then what is grammatically the primary sentence would be logically only a
subordinate sentence.
6. And on the other hand, particles such as “Yes” and “No”, which are neither subordinate
sentences nor primary sentences from the point of view of grammar, may yet be sentences
in the logical sense.
7. Just as we call “this” a pronoun, we might call “Yes” a prosentence.
8. From a logical point of view, the primary sentences are of two kinds: those which express
one’s judgements, in the purely intellectual sense, and those which express one’s feelings.
The latter are imperatives in the widest sense of the word. “Be it so!” “Do this!”
9. A sign of a judgement about one’s feelings or emotions may also serve indirectly as a
sign of these feelings or emotions themselves.
10. Every part of even the smallest complete and meaningful utterance is a “particle” in the
widest sense of the word. 6
11. So, too, for the letters, syllables, and words constituting the structure of any complete
sentence. And these, not only when they are names, but also when they are verbs, adverbs,
casus obliqui, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. Nouns, adjectives, and numerals
are names. 7
12. The particles are synsemantic.