4.031 In a sentence a state of things is as it were put together by way of a test.

Instead of, This sentence has such and such a sense, one can say, This sentence represents such and such a state of things.

A proposition is here spoken of as an unasserted thought in Frege’s terms. It is a possible assertion, so to speak. Nordmann (pp. 108-114) discusses various possible translations of this remark, and their various implications. It is ambiguous in the German, the first sentence allowing for the interpretation that a sentence puts together a situation experimentally, or as an experiment, or for the sake of experiment, or in order to be put to the test.