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analytic truth

SEMANTICS: a sentence which is true solely in virtue of its meaning. EXAMPLE: (i) is an analytic truth:


(i) Bachelors are unmarried

This sentence is an analytic truth because the meaning of the predicate is part of the meaning of the subject. The counterpart of analytic truths are synthetic truths: their truth depends on the state of affairs in the actual world. This distinction was first made by Kant. Sentence (i) is also a necessary truth: it is always true due to rules of logical deduction. Sentence (ii) is a necessary but not an analytic truth:
(ii) Every raven is black or not black
The difference between analytic truth and necessary truth is that analyticity depends on the meanings of the expressions used, while necessity depends on certain logical operators such as un- in (i) and not in (ii). All sentences which are true, but not necessarily true, are contingent truths: their truth has to be derived from the facts of the actual world.
LIT. Katz, Jerrold (1972)
Quine, W. (1953)