Language

Does the phrase "Go Jayhawks!" express a proposition?

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Does the phrase "Does the phrase 'Go Jayhawks!' express a proposition?" express a proposition?

No. Lots of bits of language don't express propositions. Questions don't express propositions, though answers to them usually do. Commands (like "Get out of my office!") don't express propositions either. We use words to do lots of things besides trying to say what's what. Someone who says "Go Jayhawks!" isn't trying to tell us that something is true (the usual mark of expressing a proposition.) Of course, it may be that this person is enthusiastic about the Jayhawks, and that may be why he yells "Go Jayhawks!" But the obvious thing to say is that his words express his enthusiasm rather than ascribe it to himself.

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