SEMANTICS * Questions for Review

English Semantics
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. How can one identify / describe the meaning of a word? Identify the meaning of
the word “assassin”.
2. What is meant by SEMANTIC PROPERTIES? Describe the semantic properties of each
of the following words: man, boy.
3. Provide the semantic features associated with each of these words: dog, puppy,
cat, kitten.
4. Indicate the semantic features of the words stallion and girl.
5. State the semantic properties of the following words and then classify them into
groups of words which share the same semantic properties:
child, actress, doe, oak, make, plod, imagine, elm, build, charity, ewe, tiptoe, stalk
6. What are the semantic properties of the following words: die, kill, thicken,
bachelor?
7. Give some examples to illustrate the same semantic property which can be
shared by words of different categories.
8. What is the semantic property shared by each of the following word groups?
a. mother, breast-feed, pregnant
b. darken, kill, beautify
9. Make a distinction between “word” and “morpheme”.
10. Apply the MEANING POSTULATE for the sentence “If X gives Y to Z, then Z receives
Y from X,” and vice versa.
11. Justify that the following sentences contain phrases that have SENSE but no
REFERENCE:

a. The present king of France is bald.

b. By the year 3000, our descendants will have left earth.

12. What are two types of meaning?

13. Make a distinction between DENOTATION and CONNOTATION. Explain the meanings
of the adjectives in Russell’s example “ I’m thrifty; you are tight; he is stingy,”
and describe their differences in connotation.
14. What is the meaning of the term CONNOTATION in semantics? What are the
connotations which the noun police may have?
15. Important factors for interpreting connotative meanings of words. Give
examples to illustrate.
16. What are the CONNOTATIVE meanings which can be associated with the use of the
words child and winter?
17. What syntactic constraints are there with English PROPER NAMES? Give examples.
18. Draw a chart to show the relationship between grass and betel nut.
19. What is the semantic relationship between the words in each pair of the
following?

a. violin  fiddle
b. elbow  arm
c. big  small

20. Side and edge are SYNONYMS, but one cannot be substituted for the other in
some cases. Say why and give an example to illustrate.
21. Why aren’t height and depth SYNONYMS? / Height and depth have a great deal
of meaning in common, e.g. measurement and vertical, but they are not called
synonyms. Why?

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22. The following pairs of words share at least one sense in common, but do not
share all their senses: deep / profound; ripe / mature. Think of a linguistic
context in which only one member of each pair can be used but the other
cannot.
23. Give some examples to illustrate the difference in meaning between HOMONYMY
and POLYSEMY.
24. What are the related meanings of the word “ mouth”? What is this type of
interrelatedness called?
25. The following words are POLYSEMOUS: chimney, guard. Give at least two
possible closely related meanings of each word and tell what common concept
is contained in the meanings.
26. Which words in the following two sentences show the relation between them?
Explain this relation.

a. I gave Mary a rose.

b. I gave Mary a flower.

27. Explain MARKEDNESS and give different forms to prove they are marked and
unmarked.
28. Explain the possible meanings of each of the following AMBIGUOUS utterances. /
How can you disambiguate the following sentences?

This suit is lighter.

She can’t bear children.
Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
I know a man with a dog who has fleas.
The chicken is ready to eat.

29. Explain the AMBIGUITY in the following and provide two sentences that
paraphrase the two possible meanings:

a. They are moving chairs.

b. Jill left directions for Jack to follow.
c. I’ll meet you at the bank.
d. It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.

30. What type of ambiguity does the phrase “French history teacher” belong to?
Give the meanings which can make it ambiguous.
31. Which RELATION is illustrated in each of the pairs of words below?

a. flourish  thrive
b. casual  informal
c. drunk  sober
d. intelligent  smart

32. Provide two sentences that PARAPHRASE the two meanings of each of the
following:

a. Old men and women will be served first.

b. John saw her duck.

33. Show the LOGICAL RELATIONS in the following paraphrases:

a. The dog bit the man.

b. The man was bitten by the dog.

34. Which of these relations (IMPLICATURE, ENTAILMENT and CONTRADICTION) is

exemplified in each of the following pairs?

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a. Vera is an only
child. Olga is Vera’s
sister.
b. The park wardens killed the bear.
The bear is dead.
c. Jules is Mary’s husband.
Mary is married. 

35. What notion does the word mean designate in the following sentences?

a. I didn’t mean to offend you.

b. These clouds mean rain.
c. The word “CACTUS” means a plant with spines.

36. Define “idiom”. What’s the difference in interpreting the meaning of a phrase
and the meaning of an idiom? Give examples to illustrate.
37. What is meant by the following idiomatic expression: Everyone in this town has
a big nose?
38. Explain the meaning of the idiom “to let your hair down” in the sentence It’s
wonderful to let your hair down at the weekend after you’ve been working
hard all week.
39. What’s the meaning of the idiom “ I’ll eat my hat” in the sentence “ If it wasn’t
your brother who stole it, I’ll eat my hat.”
40. What is meant by “FIGURE OF SPEECH”? Name at least 6 figures of speech and
give examples for each.
41. Give two sentences in which METAPHORS are used.
42. What are the METAPHORICAL MEANINGS of these sentences?

a. Walls have ears.

b. Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
c. My new car is a lemon.
d. John is a snake in the grass.

43. Underline, identify the type of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE and interpret its meaning in
each of the following sentences.

a. You came in thirty-seven minutes after the fifty-minute class started. You were a bit
late.
b. If you are not happy with the service, go talk to the City Hall.

44. Underline and identify the type of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE and interpret its meaning
in each of the following sentences.

a. Your wit is only exceeded by your charm and good looks.

b. You can depend on Mary; she’s a rock when trouble comes.

45. What is the difference between PERSONIFICATION and APOSTROPHE? Give examples
to illustrate.
46. What is an ACRONYM? Write the full form of each of the following.

UNESCO, TESOL, TESL, ESP, WHO, UNDP

47. We finished that chapter yesterday. How do you know what day “yesterday”
refers to?
48. What is the difference between temporal and spatial DEIXIS?
49. Which ANAPHORIC EXPRESSIONS (or PRO-FORMS) can be used to rewrite the following
sentences?
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a. I love Sybil and Jack loves Sybil too.

b. Emily hugged Helen and Steve hugged Helen too.
c. I am sick and my being sick makes me sad.

50. What is meant by “PROPOSITION”? Write four propositions implied by each of the
sentences below.

a. John’s friend, Tony, who is a dentist, likes apples.

b. The man gave the woman a big expensive emerald ring.

51. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

What is wrong with this sentence?
52. Why is the following sentence UNINTERPRETABLE: An orkish sluck blecked
nokishly?
53. Explain “DIRECT SPEECH ACT” and give three examples.
54. Define PERFORMATIVE VERB. Use each of the following verbs in a performative
utterance: bet, challenge, dare, move.
55. Which utterances are PERFORMATIVE (P) or CONSTATIVE (C)?

a. “I name this ship Hibernia.”

b. “I admit that I was hasty.”
c. “I think I was wrong.”
d. I give you supper every night.”

56. Could CONSTATIVES become PERFORMATIVES? How?

57. What are COMMISSIVES? Give two examples.
58. Interpret the meaning of each of the following:

a. “I’m coming soon,” the mother told the little child.

b. The meeting is over.
c. Watch your step!
d. It’s so cold tonight.

59. HAPPINESS / FELICITY CONDITIONS for a compliment to be performed.

60. Explain the sentence The window is open in both situations:

a. The window is open.

b. SPEAKER 1: I’m cold.
SPEAKER 2: The window is open.

61. What has been PRESUPPOSED by the following sentences?

a. Have you stopped hugging your sheepdog?

b. Would you like another beer?

62. What are the PRESUPPOSITIONS for the following sentences? / What is the
presupposition each of the following may carry?

a. Who bought the badminton set?

b. My brother is rich.
c. Bill regrets that the circus has left.
d. Dinosaurs were carnivorous or herbivorous reptiles.

63. What verbs in both groups of sentences imply a PRESUPPOSITION? Give your
interpretation of it.

a. Have you stopped exercising

regularly? Have you tried exercising
regularly?
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b. Nick admitted that the team had lost.

Nick said that the team had lost.

64. Define SPEECH ACT. What are the three related acts involved in a speech act?
Give examples.
65. What ACT is supposed / expected to be performed when somebody says each of
the following.

It’s getting noisy.

It’s cold in here.

66. Describe the process of SEMANTIC SHIFT each of the following words has
undergone: knight, nice, girl, starve.

ENDNOTES

1
MARKED VS. UNMARKED

The concept of markedness is variously interpreted in linguistics. In GENERATIVE

GRAMMAR it refers to a distinction between sets of FEATURES, where one is considered
to be neutral and the other non-neutral. So, for example, there is a formal feature
marking the plural in most English nouns, i.e. the addition of –s; the plural is
therefore “marked”, and the singular “unmarked”. In describing the singular as
unmarked we are identifying it as the neutral form of the word, free from any
modification, and the plural as derived from it by a process of marking. A similar
case can be made for the inflection –ed, which formally marks the presence of the
past tense. And in PHONOLOGY marking is important in distinguishing the DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES of speech, e.g. VOICE. Here, the presence of voicing is seen as marked and
its absence as unmarked.

Other interpretations of marking involve frequency of occurrence rather than

presence v. absence. In DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, for example, it is sometimes said that a
falling intonation pattern is unmarked, because more common than a rising one,
which is correspondingly marked. Yet another interpretation can be found in the
SEMANTIC analysis of words, where pairs of items are seen as marked or unmarked,
respectively, on the grounds that one has a wider DISTRIBUTION, or application, than
another, e.g. old/young (How old is John? is more normal than How young is John?).
A related SENSE has to do with SPECIFICITY, where one term is more specific than
another, e.g. dog/bitch (dog can be used to animals of either sex, but bitch is limited
to the female). And finally, linguists interested in UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR use marking to
distinguish properties which can be found in all languages as against those which are
exceptional and which can only be found in a few.

The concept of markedness, therefore, can be used in a variety of contexts to

distinguish what we can consider as the base, normative, or most common forms of
items or features from those which are derived, non-normative, or less frequent.

2
ENTAILMENT VS. PRESUPPOSITION / PARAPHRASE

A logical relationship between two sentences such that the truth of the second
sentence necessarily follows from the truth of the first. So, for example, sentence
(1a), below, entails sentence (1b):

1
Geoffrey Finch, Linguistic Terms and Concepts, St. Martins Press, Inc.
2
ibid

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(1a) John killed Bob.

(1b) Bob died.

The entailment here is a consequence of the semantic relationship between kill and
die. We know that there are various ways to die and that being killed is one of them.
In other words, an important part of the sense of killed is contained within die. This
kind of entailment, in which the sense of one lexical item is included within another,
is based on a hierarchical relationship between items, known as HYPONYMY. Another
example of such an entailment is the following pair:

(2a) I bought a car.

(2b) I bought an animal.

In this case sentence (2a) entails sentence (2b) since a cat is a kind of animal.
Another way of putting this is to describe (2b) as the entailment of (2a). Notice,
however, that the relationship is not reversible. Saying that I have bought an animal
does not entail that I have bought a cat. It could be a dog, or a parrot, or any other
animal. Similarly, to state that Bob died does not entail that John killed him.

One of the principle difficulties which students regularly have is distinguishing

ENTAILMENT from PRESUPPOSITION. This is another logical relationship involving
statements which are dependent on one another. The big difference is in the nature
of that independence. In the sentences above, negating (a) means that (b) can be
either true or false. In other words, the entailment fails. So, for example, saying that
I didn’t buy a cat leaves completely open the question of whether or not I bought an
animal. This would not be so if the relationship were one of PRESUPPOSITION. In the
sentences below, (3a) presupposes (that is, assume) the truth of (3b):

(3a) The King of England left for Peru yesterday.

(3b) There is a King of England.

but even if we negate (a) the presupposition holds:

(4a) The King of England did not leave for Peru yesterday.
(4b) There is a King of England.

The importance of entailment to linguists is that it enables them to analyze what are
called the TRUTH RELATIONS of sentences. These are independent of their empirical, or
actual, truth. This means that (1b) and (2b) are automatically entailed respectively
by (1a) and (2a). On the basis of these, semanticists interested in the logical
dimension of the language can construct TRUTH TABLES. The following table shows the
truth relations which exist between (1a) and (1b), and between (2a) and (2b). The
symbols p and q represent the first and second sentences in each sequence and the
arrows  and  show the direction of a relation “when ……… then”. So the first line
reads “when p is true, q is true”, and the last line reads “when q is true, p can be
either true or false”.

TRUTH TABLE FOR ENTAILMENT

p q
T  T
F  T or F
F  F
T or F  T

T= TRUE
F= FALSE

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The entailments we have looked at so far are lexical in origin, that is they derive
from the lexical relationship between individual words. But entailment can also be
syntactic in origin. Active and passive versions of the same sentence will entail one
another, so for example (5a) and (5b) below entail each other:

(5a) John killed Bob.

(5b) Bob was killed by John.

These sentences have the same set of entailments. That is, they MUTUALLY ENTAIL each
other. Or to put it in another way, they PARAPHRASE each other.

PRESUPPOSITION

A term used in both semantics and pragmatics to refer to assumptions implicitly

made by speakers and listeners which are necessary for the correct interpretation of
utterances. The statement I’m sorry it’s raining, for example, presupposes that it is
raining. The presupposition also holds if the statement is negated: I’m not sorry it’s
raining, also presupposes it’s raining. This is an important difference between
PRESUPPOSITION and ENTAILMENT, a logical relationship with which presupposition is
sometimes confused. Presuppositions deal with the necessary preconditions for
statements to be true. So the sentence My cat was run over yesterday assumes as a
necessity the truth of I have a cat.

Presupposition allows us the freedom not to make everything explicit in our

communications. If we had to spell out all the details every time we spoke, then
communicating would be an extremely lengthy and tedious business. Being able to
assume a certain amount of knowledge on the part of listeners makes it possible to
take shortcuts. The degree of shortcutting, however, depends on the context in
communication takes place. A certain amount of presupposition is implicit in the
linguistic system and can be studied just like entailment, in terms of its TRUTH
CONDITIONS. This is the concern of semanticists for whom presupposition is a matter
of formal logical relationships. The examples already given illustrate this strict view.
We could call this SENTENCE PRESUPPOSITION. Many sentence presuppositions are
produced by the presence of certain words. Linguists term these LEXICAL TRIGGERS. For
example, there is a class of verbs like regret and realize, which are called FACTIVE
VERBS because they presuppose the truth of their complement clause. Compare
sentences (1a) and (1b) below. Only the sentence with the factitive verb realize
presupposes (1c). The non-factive verb think has no such presupposition.

(1a) John realized that it was raining.

(1b) John thought it was raining.
(1c) It was raining.

Similarly compare (2a)(2c):

(2a) Sarah regretted going out.

(2b) Sarah considered going out.
(2c) Sarah went out.

………

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