sententialism

English

Etymology

From sentential +‎ -ism.

Noun

sententialism (uncountable)

1. (semantics) The theory that cognition is based on and can be represented as sentences in mentalese.
   • 1989, J. Christopher Maloney, The Mundane Matter of the Mental Language, page 111:

     Sententialism does not entail that only verbal creatures can enjoy a mental language. Neither does it presuppose that an intelligent creature's language of thought must be its language of communication, […]

   • 2015, Richard John Kosciejew, The Pursuing Presence of Facts:

     Thinking, according to sententialism, may then be like quoting. To quote an English sentence is to issue, in a certain way, a token of a given English sentence type: […]

Related terms

• sententialist