Why there are no states of affairs

Abstract

A state of affairs, such as that John loves Mary or that Gordon Brown is Scottish, is an entity which in some way corresponds to a true sentence, belief or judgement. Its correspondence is indicated by its being standardly designated by a that-clause taking a whole declarative sentence as its linguistic complement. Sometimes a gerund or gerundive clause may take the place of the that-cause, as in John’s loving Mary or Gordon being Scottish. In certain contexts a state of affairs might be designated by a bare sentential clause, as in the last four words of John saw Mary cross the road.