If I said to you “dog” or “cat,” your response would be expectant, waiting to hear more. You would wonder, What about dogs or cats? Through the words I’m speaking, you know the ideas I’m dealing with, but you don’t know what I intend to do with those ideas. I’m simply “saying” the ideas; I’m not saying anything about them. We say something about ideas when we put them together to form statements that can be responded to affirmatively or negatively. Notice that if someone simply says “dog,” there would not be much sense in responding with “That’s true” or “That’s false.”
