PRACTICE ON SEMANTICS

1. Both dictionary-style definitions and mental image definitions are presented as

possible ways that word meanings may be stored in our brains. Although neither
turns out to be a completely acceptable answer, does one seem to have more merit
than the other? Why do you think so?

 One has more merit than the other since the meaning is established in the
dictionary and the meaning that we have in our mind is like a paraphrase of the
definition itself.

2. Identify each of the following statements as being either mostly about lexical
semantics or mostly about compositional semantics:

a. The words couch and sofa mean roughly the same thing.
Yes its mean roughly the same thing.
b. Water under the bridge means something different from bridge under the
water.
No, it is opposite to water under the bridge.

3. For each expression below, specify what its reference is. For example, the reference
of New York City is the actual city in the state of New York in the United States, the
reference of dog is the set of all actual dogs in the world, and the reference of sleep is
the set of all individuals in the world who sleep.

a. France - The actual country in Western Europe

b. book - The set of all thing’s books
c. red - The set of all red things
d. Noam Chomsky - The actual individual called Noam Chomsky
e. eat - The set of all eaters
f. fox - The set of all things that are foxes
g. student - The set of all students
4. In what way is each of the following pairs of words related? In cases of hyponymy,
indicate which word is the hyponym and which word is the hypernym; in cases of
antonymy, tell what kind of antonymy it is.

a. Shallow deep – They are Gradable antonyms

b. Apple banana – They are hyponyms. Hyponyms of
fruit, apple is the hypernym of banana.
c. Suite sweet – Homophones
d. Table furniture – Hyponymy’s. table is the hypernym
of furniture. Furniture is the hyponym.
e. Unmarried married – complementary antonyms
f. Study studying – converses

5. For each of the following expressions, determine whether it expresses a proposition

or not. Remember, if you are dealing with a proposition, you can question its truth
value.
For example, we know that Fido is a dog expresses a proposition because we can ask Is it
true that Fido is a dog? Conversely, a dog all by itself does not express a proposition
because we cannot ask Is it true that a dog?

a. woman – not a proposition

b. like Bob – not a proposition
c. the smallest country in the world – not a proposition
d. Sally wondered who would be at the party – proposition
e. Bob hates Polly – proposition
f. accidentally – not a proposition
g. Polly liked – not a proposition