lOMoARcPSD|21738608 Semantics: a coursebook (second edition) James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley Michael B. Smith ANSWER KEY FOR UNIT QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Preface The purpose of this supplement is to provide suggested answers for most of the study guide questions and exercises that appear at the end of each unit of Semantics: A Coursebook, 2nd edition. I have retained the original format of the study guide and questions from each unit, though there are no "answers" provided for item 1 in each set, which consists of terms and concepts students should know. In many cases I have also not given suggested answers for certain questions that require open-ended explanation or discussions of the issues, since these will vary considerably. All suggested answers are written in a different font (Tahoma) than the original questions. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Unit 1 Study Guide and Exercises Directions: After you have read Unit 1 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: semantics linguistics sentence (word) meaning language speaker meaning componentsof language native speaker (informant) theory of semantics "knowing" the meaning(s) of a word 2. Try to paraphrase (restate in your own words) each of the following uses of the word mean as it is used in each sentence below. Do you think each use is more reflective of speaker meaning or sentence meaning? Briefly explain. a. I mean to be there tomorrow. mean = 'intend' b. A stalling car may mean a tune-up. mean = 'require, signify' c. "Calligraphy" means beautiful handwriting. mean = 'signify' d. It wasn't what he said but what he meant. mean = 'intend' e. What does the German word Hund mean? mean = 'be equivalent to' f. Those clouds mean rain. mean = 'signify, portend' Answers may vary. Speaker meaning seems more pronounced in the use of mean in 2a,d, because it evokes the idea that the speaker intends to do something. Sentence meaning is clearly found in the use of mean in 2e, because it evokes the notion of equivalency rather than speaker intent. Sentence meaning is also most likely evoked in 2b,c,f, because these uses of mean do not seem to evoke the speaker's intent, but to indicate that something signifies or represents something else. 3. Look up the words mean and meaning in any handy collegiate dictionary and find out how many senses of the words are listed there. What sense(s) of mean seem(s) to correspond most closely to the sense(s) that the text is concerned with? Answers will vary depending on the dictionary chosen. 4. What is meant by a theory of semantics? Try to explain this briefly in your own words. A theory of semantics should include a set of assumptions and principles that allows for the explanation and prediction of meaning phenomena relative to those assumptions. It typically has a technical vocabulary and a formalism for the sake of precision. 5. Which of the following items appear to illustrate sentence meaning and which illustrate speaker meaning in the way these concepts were introduced in this unit? Be able to explain your choice. a. A bachelor is an unmarried man. Sentence meaning b. A red light means 'stop'. Speaker meaning (could also evoke sarcasm) c. A fine product THEY put out! (THEY is strongly emphasized) www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Speaker meaning d. The sentences in the following pair appear to be opposite in meaning: 1) The bear killed the man. Sentence meaning 2) The man killed the bear. Sentence meaning e. My feet are killing me. Speaker meaning 6. Is meaningfulness synonymous with informativeness? Explain in your own words and supply an illustration. Not necessarily. Speakers can convey speaker meaning without being particularly informative, i.e. bringing up new information. The language is full of expressions whose primary function is to keep the conversation going, such as "That's right, go on", or to maintain a friendly social atmosphere, as in "Nice weather we're having, isn't it?" when it is clear that the weather is nice without having to say so. 7. A semantic theory should account for items like the following, which we will study in the following units. Can you guess now what aspect of meaning is involved in each example? a. The President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief. This sentence equates two entities with each other. b. She can't bear children. The word bear has more than one meaning (it's homonymous). c. You're sitting in the apple-juice seat. Context is needed to understand apple-juice seat as the place at the breakfast table where the apple juice has been placed. d. How long did John stay in New York? This interrogative queries (asks about) the proposition that John stayed in New York. e. A tulip is a flower. In generic sentences the noun phrases do not refer to particular entities, but to whole classes of individuals. f. John's present wife is unmarried. This sentence is a contradiction (can't possibly be true). g. The car needs to be washed. This can be used as an indirect request to wash the car. h. If John killed Bill is true, then so is Bill is dead. The truth of the first sentence guarantees the truth of the second sentence. (Entailment relation between sentences.) 8. In this unit we claimed that semantics "concentrates on the similarities between languages, rather than on the differences" (p.11). Do you agree with this sort of focus? Does it seem too narrow? Why or why not? www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook One might claim that the differences between languages are also of great interest, and that more complete theories of semantics ought to address this issue, as well. 9. Explain in your own words the statement that "No theory...[including] semantic theory...is complete" (p. 12). An answer should include the idea that, as we learn more about a particular area of knowledge such as semantics, we are able to continually refine the principles that underlie the theory and account for a greater array of semantic data. But it is unlikely that we will ever be able to learn all there is to know, therefore raising the possibility that the theory can never be truly complete. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Unit 2 Study Guide and Exercises Directions: After you have read Unit 2 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: sentence declarative sentence utterance interrogative sentence proposition imperative sentence 2. Is semantics concerned only with complete sentences? Explain. No, since many uses of language consist of partial sentences or just individual words. Example: "Coffee, please" uttered in a café. 3. Indicate the conventions used in the text to distinguish a sentence from an utterance. Give an illustration of each. Sentences are written in italics, utterances are enclosed in double quotes. Example: Mary wrote a letter is a sentence, whereas "Mary wrote a letter" is an utterance of that sentence on a particular occasion. 4. Indicate whether each of the following sentence pairs expresses the same or different propositions. a. Mary read the book/The book was read by Mary. Same b. Fred took back the book/Fred took the book back. Same c. The cat chased the rat/The cat was chased by the rat. Different d. The chef cooked the meal/The chef had the meal cooked. Different e. Hondas are easy to fix/It's easy to fix Hondas. Same 5. Explain the following from the text (p. 21): "Normally, when a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he commits himself to the truth of the corresponding proposition: i.e. he asserts the proposition. By uttering a simple interrogative or imperative, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without asserting its truth." Answers will vary, but should follow the presentation in the book fairly closely. Student should try to answer without looking at the page in question. 6. In each of the following, indicate whether a proposition is asserted or not: a. John left yesterday. Proposition is asserted. b. Did John leave yesterday? Proposition is not asserted. c. Can John leave this afternoon? Proposition is not asserted. d. John, get out of here. Proposition is not asserted. e. John! Proposition is not asserted. Comment: Propositions are only asserted using declarative statements. 7. Decide whether each pair of sentences below has the same or different propositional content. If they have the same propositional content, identify the proposition that they both share. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook a. Can John have some cake?/John has some cake. Same Proposition: John possesses some cake. b. Take out the garbage/You will take out the garbage. Same Proposition: The addressee will remove the garbage. c. Can you pass the salt?/The salt shaker is nearly empty. Different 8. Utterances can be loud or quiet, in a particular regional accent, and in a particular language. Can you think of other characteristics of utterances? Utterances can be sung, spoken fast or slow, at a high or low pitch, interrupted by a cough or sneeze, or be affected by false starts, etc. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Unit 3 Study Guide and Exercises Directions: After you have read Unit 3 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: sense context reference dialect referent proposition 2. Can different expressions have the same referent? Give an example not found in this unit. Yes. Abraham Lincoln and The 16th President of the United States of America 3. Can the same expression have different referents? Give an example not found in this unit. Yes. The book, a flower, etc. This is extremely common in the language. 4. Give an example of an expression not found in this unit that has an invariable referent and of one that has no referent. Expressions with invariable referent: The planet Saturn, the Grand Canyon Expressions with no referent: The unicorn, perhaps 5. Explain this sentence from this unit in your own words: "Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference". Answers will vary, but should contain the idea that meaning is not tied exclusively to just the referring function of language, but involves aspects of knowledge that is more abstract and elusive. 6. Characterize a typical dictionary definition of a word. Does the definition include everything a typical native speaker knows about the word's meaning? Is it possible to write such an entry which is complete? A typical dictionary entry for a word is a set of expressions that have similar senses to that of the word in question. It rarely includes everything a speaker knows about the word's meaning, because it's nearly impossible to know what the limits on that knowledge are (it likely varies from one speaker to another). A complete entry is also rarely possible, partially because entries tend to be circular: an entry that attempts to define a word often contains one or more words whose own entries contain the original word that was to be defined. Comment of the following examples, making reference to concepts introduced in this unit: 7. the evening star/the morning star Expressions with the same referent, but different senses. 8. the President of the United States/the Commander-in-Chief/the leader of the Republican Party Expressions with the same referent, but different senses. 9. Visiting relatives can be boring. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook An ambiguous sentence, because it has different senses. 10. the planet Mars Expression with invariant reference. 11. Smoking grass can be dangerous. An ambiguous sentence, because it has different senses. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|21738608 ANSWER KEY Semantics: a coursebook Unit 4 Study Guide and Exercises Directions: After you have read Unit 4 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: referring expression opaque context indefinite noun phrase equative sentence definite noun phrase 2. Which of the following could be used as referring expressions? Be able to explain why or why not. Correct answers (a,b,f,g,h) are in boldface (but see comment below). a. my table e. or b. a unicorn (?) f. Mary c. no love g. a book d. travel h. Abraham Lincoln Comment: Some students may be unsure of how to deal with a unicorn in 2b, since these entities don't exist in the real world we live in. In a later unit (6) we will clarify that the notion of reference will have to be extended to include such entities as unicorns. For now, it is sufficient to leave the matter open. For sentences 3-6 below decide whether the italicized noun phrases are referring expressions or not, and explain why (or why not). If the sentence is ambiguous explain why it is ambiguous. 3. His father married a dancer. Referring expression; a dancer refers to a particular dancer that his father married. 4. John wants to marry a dancer. Either referring or non-referring, depending on whether John has a particular person in mind. 5. The whale is the largest mammal. Non-referring. This is a generic sentence. As typically understood, the noun phrase the whale does not refer here to any particular whale, but to the whole class of possible whales. 6. The man who shot Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald. Referring expression; it picks out a unique individual. 7. Explain the ambiguity in: I am looking for a pencil. The ambiguity depends on whether I have a particular pencil in mind, which depends on how the indefinite article a is interpreted. www.cambridge.org/hurford © James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley and Michael B. Smith 2007 Downloaded by riz riz ([email protected])