truthconditional

Truth-conditional semantics is a family of theories in the philosophy of language and linguistics that analyzes meaning in terms of the conditions under which a sentence would be true. According to truth-conditional theories, knowing the meaning of a sentence amounts to knowing the proposition it expresses and the circumstances that would make that proposition true or false. For simple declaratives such as "The cat is on the mat," the truth conditions are the facts about the world that would make the sentence true; for "Snow is white," the relevant condition is the whiteness of snow.

In formal treatments, truth conditions are often modeled with possible-worlds semantics and Tarski-style truth definitions. Frege’s early insight linked meaning to truth conditions, while Tarski provided a precise account of truth for formal languages. Contemporary truth-conditional semantics typically uses a compositional framework: the meaning of complex sentences is built from the meanings of their parts and the rules that determine how these parts combine to yield truth conditions.

Applications appear in linguistics and philosophy of language, where model-theoretic semantics evaluates utterances relative to contexts, individuals, and possible worlds. Context-sensitivity is often handled by indexing world parameters, times, or discourse contexts, leading to context-dependent or indexed truth conditions.

Criticisms highlight limits of the approach: not all aspects of meaning seem reducible to truth conditions, such as epistemic stance, expressive content, irony, or performative force. Some theorists advocate use-based or speech-act approaches as complements or alternatives, emphasizing function and communicative purpose over truth-conditional content.