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UNIT 1
WHAT IS SEMANTICS?
A. DEFINITION
Semantics (Greek, semantikos, “significant”), the study of the meaning of linguistic

signs—that is, words, expressions, and sentences. Scholars of semantics try to answer such
questions as “What is the meaning of (the word) X?” They do this by studying what signs are,
as well as how signs possess significance—that is, how they are intended by speakers, how
they designate (make reference to things and ideas), and how they are interpreted by hearers.
The goal of semantics is to match the meanings of signs—what they stand for—with the
process of assigning those meanings.
Semantics is studied from philosophical (pure) and linguistic (descriptive and
theoretical) approaches, plus an approach known as general semantics. Philosophers look at
the behaviour that goes with the process of meaning. Linguists study the elements or features
of meaning as they are related in a linguistic system. General semanticists concentrate on
meaning as influencing what people think and do.
Here are two senses for semantics:
1. Semantics is, generally defined, the study of meaning of linguistic expressions.
2. Semantics is, more narrowly defined, the study of the meaning of linguistic
expressions apart from consideration of the effect that pragmatic factors, such as the
following, have on the meaning of language in use:
 Features of the context
 Conventions of language use
 The goals of the speaker
In the scope of this course we only mention semantics in its narrow sense, namely
sentence (word) meaning which is independent of pragmatic context. We do not discuss such
aspects of meaning as with the speaker’s meaning which should be interpreted based on the
consideration of the extra-linguistic factors namely speaker’s intention, governing factors of
pragmatic context and situation such as time, place ….
As mentioned, semantics is the study of meaning of linguistic expressions. Here we
have to answer the questions: “What is meaning?” and “What is considered linguistic
expressions?” Meaning can be interpreted and understood in a variety of ways and
perspectives. Just look at some instances of meaning in the following sentences.
I. The meaning of meaning
In an important rarely book on the subject, C.K Ogden & I.A. Richards’s The
Meaning of Meaning (1923) (cited in Crystal (1987), 16 different meanings of the words
‘mean/ meaning’ were distinguished. Here are some of them:
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John means to write. ‘intends’
A green light means go. ‘indicates’
Health means everything. ‘has importance’
His look was full of meaning. ‘special import’
What is the meaning of life? ‘point, purpose’
What does ‘capitalist’ mean to you? ‘convey’
What does ‘cornea’ mean? ‘refer to in the world’
It is the last kind of use that comes closest to the focus of linguistic semantic; but even
this is a special kind of enquiry. The questions asks for a definition, which is a somewhat
unusual form of reply, found more in dictionaries than in everyday speech, that involves the
‘translation’ of the difficult word into ‘easier’ words. The study of the properties of
definitions is an important part of semantics, but it is only a part. Of greater importance is the
study of the way in which words and sentences convey meaning in the everyday situations of
speech and writing.
II. Three conceptions of meaning
1. Words and things
A popular view is that words ‘name’ or ‘refer to’ things – a view that can be found in
the pages of Plato’s Cratylus. Proper names like London, Bill Brown, and Daddy illustrate
this conception, as do several other words and phrases – the labels attached to objects for sales
in a shop, or those found on a pain colour chart. But there are large numbers of words whether
it is not possible to see what ‘thing’ the word refers to: verbs such as ask or find; adjectives
such as difficult or popular; nouns such as consistency or tradition. In fact, the majority of
words seem unable to relate to things, in any clear way.
2. Words, concepts and things
This view denies a direct link between words and things, arguing that the relationship
can be made only through the use of our minds. For every word, there is an associated
concept. One of the best known formulations of this position is the ‘semiotic triangle’ of
Ogden Richards (1923, p.99):
Thought
Symbol Referent
Figure 1.1 The ‘semiotic triangle’ of Ogden Richards (1923, p.99, cited in Crystal (1987))
The main criticism of this approach is the insuperable difficulty of identifying
‘concept’. The ‘concept’ underlying a word such as tradition is no easier to define than the
‘thing; referred to by tradition. Some words do have meanings that relatively easy to
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conceptualize, but we certainly do not have neat visual images corresponding to every word
we say. Nor is there any guarantee that a concept which might come to mind when I use the
word table is going to be the same as the one you, the reader, might bring to mind.
B. SOURCES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO STUDY OF MEANING
The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, word, phrases, and sentences is
called semantics. Subfields of semantics are lexical semantics, which is concerned with
meanings of words and the meaning relationships among words; and phrasal or sentential
semantics, which is concerned with the meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. The
study of how context affects meaning – for example, how the sentence It’s cold in here comes
to be interpreted as “close the windows” in certain situations – is called pragmatics.
Contributions to semantics have come essentially from two sources – linguistics and
philosophy as mentioned above. Linguists have contributed primarily to the study of the core
meaning or sense of individual words. Philosophers, on the other hand, have contributed
primarily to the study of meaning of sentences. However, rather than trying to characterize the
core meaning or sense of sentences directly = which, as we have just seen, is a difficult
undertaking – they have approached the semantics of sentences from two other directions: the
study of reference and the study of truth conditions. Reference is the study of what objects
linguistic expressions (i.e. words, phrases, sentences, and so on) refer to. For example, in the
sentence Mulroney is the Prime Minister of Canada, the expression Mulroney and the
expression the Prime Minister of Canada refer to the same entity, namely Brain Mulroney.
Truth conditional semantics, on the other hand is the study of the condition under which a
statement can be judged true or false. In actuality, much of what falls under the name of truth
conditions involves truth relations that hold between sentences. For example if the sentence
Fred is 80 years old is true, then the sentence Fred is over 50 years old is necessarily true.
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UNIT 2
SENTENCES, UTTERANCES & PROPOSITIONS
To understand the notions of sense, reference, denotation, connotation, extension and
intension we should master the basic notions such as sentence, utterance and proposition.
A. UTTERANCE
I. Definition:
An utterance is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is
silence on the part of that person.
An utterance is the USE by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of
language, such as sequence of sentences, or a single phrase or even a single word. (Hurford,
1983, p.15)
An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker's silence.
(Source: Crystal 1985, Pei and Gaynor 1954)
An utterance is a string of speech found between breaths or pauses.
An utterance act is a speech act that consists of the verbal employment of units of
expression such as words and sentences.
(Source: Searle 1969)
II. Characteristics:
- Utterances are physical events/ objects, i.e. they are just uttered or actually used in a
particular occasion. When we refer to an utterance we mean a unit of talk or something
characterized as in spoken language. Thus, an utterance is realized by accent, phonetic factors
and if an utterance is recorded in written form, it is represented with double quotation marks
in books or novels as the voice of the characters or speakers or writers or generally the
addresser of the message. In communication we can usually hear utterances of non sentences:
short phrases or a single word …. For example,
- Not too bad. (as a response to the question “How are you?”)
- Fire! (as the warning of a fire)
Practice 2.1
Now decide whether the following could represent utterances. Please give your answer
as Yes or No and consider whether each of them meet the description of an utterance
mentioned in the definition.
1) “Hello”
2) “Not much”
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3) “Utterances are physical events/ objects, i.e. they are just uttered or actually used in a
particular occasion. When we refer to an utterance we mean a unit of talk in spoken language.
Thus, an utterance is realized by accent, phonetic factors and if an utterance is recorded in
written form, it is represented with double quotation marks in books or novels as the voice of
the characters or speakers or writers or generally the addresser of the message”.
4) “Pxgotmgt”
5) “Schplotzenpflaaaaaaaaargh!”
(Hurford, 1983, p. 15)
At this stage, for us to imagine the relationship between an utterance and a sentence
we can assume that an utterance act is a speech act that consists of the verbal employment of
units of expression such as words and sentences.
B. SENTENCE
I. Definition:
A sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language.
(Hurford, 1983, p. 16)
A sentence is a linguistic entity conceived abstractly. We cannot hear it for the fact
that the formation of a sentence occurs in our mind. A sentence is never uttered and thus it is
not tied to a particular time or place
It is grammatical in that it must be conformed to the syntactic rules of a certain
language. For example, this sentence is comprehensible because it is structured with the
grammatical rules of English: It took Tom 2 hours to finish his enormous dinner.
A sentence can be thought of as the IDEAL string of words behind various realizations
in utterances and inscriptions. We can just realize a sentence by hearing its communicative
realization as the utterance or looking at its inscription in the book. A sentence is said to be
abstract because it is not associated to any phonetic characteristics. Therefore it would make
sense to say that an utterance was in a particular accent (i.e. a particular way of pronouncing
words). However, it would not make strict sense to say that a sentence was in a particular
accent.
A sentence expresses a complete thought, i.e. it typically is composed of a subject and
a predicate each of which correspond to the thing/person being talked about and the
characteristics about the subject.
E.g. Fred is handsome. (sentence)
Subject Predicate (linguistic function)
A person characteristic (meaning)
Sentence types: This is the basic classification of sentences into types:
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 Declarative, e.g., Ellen went to the library.
 Interrogative, e.g., Did Ellen go to the library?
 Imperative, e.g., (Ellen) Go to the library!
 Optative, e.g., I wish Ellen went to the library.
Normally, there is a default correspondence between sentence types and speech acts.
(see further reading below).
Practice 2.2
Which of the following sentences are tokens of whole (complete) sentences? and which is
not?
1) “John” 4) “It’s mine”.
2) “Who is there?” 5) “Where shall I …?”
3) “Mine”
(Hurford, 1983, p.16; P.18)
C. PROPOSITION
I. Definition:
A proposition is the basic meaning which a sentence expresses. A proposition consists
of
(a) something which is named or talked about (known as argument, or entity);
(b) an assertion or predication which is made about the argument.
A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence
which describes some state of affairs. (Hurford, 1983, p.19)
(In speech act semantics) A proposition is that part of the meaning of a clause or sentence
that is constant, despite changes in such things as the voice or illocutionary force of the
clause. Here a distinction is made between the propositional meaning of a sentence, and its
illocutionary force (i.e. the use made of the sentence in communication, e.g. as a request, a
warning, a promise). (Richard (1985), p.297)
E.g.
a) Anh đi.
b) Anh đi à?
c) Anh đi ư?
d) Anh đi nhé.
e) Anh đi đi.
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These utterances have the same proposition P [anh đi]. However, each of them has a
distinctive voice or illocutionary force F as follows.
a) Anh đi. (Informing)
b) Anh đi (questioning)
c) Anh đi ư? (questioning with surprise)
d) Anh đi nhé. (Informing with attention)
e) Anh đi đi. (request/order)
We can have the semantic structure of an utterance as follows:
F (P)
F: Illocutionary force (stating the purpose of the utterance: whether it is a statement, a
question or an order …)
P: Proposition (that part of meaning of a sentence/ an utterance: constant)
The state of affairs typically involves persons or things referred to by expressions in
the sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically asserts a proposition.
The meaning of a sentence or utterance can be judged by examing the truth condition
of the proposition. If a particular speaker utters two sentences and only one of these sentences
is true whereas the other is false, we can say that these two sentences express two different
propositions.
E.g. We can say the sentences i) and ii) have the same proposition if both of them are true or
false (Assuming in each case the same name Harry refers to the same person), but the
sentences iii) and iv) express different propositions.
i) Harry took out the agarbage.
ii) Harry took the garbage out.
iii) Harry loves Mary.
iv) Mary loves John.
Thus, when a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he commits himself to the
truth of the corresponding proposition. We can know a proposition is true if we know that the
state-of-affairs mentioned in the proposition is true to our knowledge about the world. In this
case, a true proposition is a fact.
For example, in the present-day world we know that it is a fact that there are lions in
Africa or it is a fact that Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung is the present Prime Minister of Vietnam.
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Practice 2.3
Now let us think about the truth of the following propositions. Is each of these
propositions is true or false regarding your knowledge about the present-day world?
1) Portugal defeated Germany in the quarter final of Euro 08 tournament.
2) Nicole Kidman is American.
3) The champions of Euro 08 are German.
4) Semantics is the study of speech sounds.
D. THE INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROPOSITIONS-SENTENCES-UTTERANCES
I. Proposition vs. Thought:

Proposition is an object or product of thought. A proposition can be thought of as
something to entertain in an individual’s mind. On the other hand, the same proposition can
be grasped by many different people. In this sense, it can be private or public. For example, a
Vietnamese person and an English person may look into the sky and at the same time each of
them may have the same proposition about the state-of-affairs in their own mind.
P[mưa] P[rain
]
A sentence expresses a complete thought (a proposition) which consists of a noun (to

refer to a particular thing) and a predicate (a verb, adjective to specify the thing denoted by a
noun)
II. Sentences vs utterances:
1. A sentence is a linguistic unit/entity whereas an utterance is an action of
communicating. A sentence is a linguistic unit in that this entity is composed of units
of language such as words, phrases and put together by grammatical rules of a certain
language (Vietnamese or English). An utterance is a speech act in that it in making an
utterance we have to make an act of uttering a sentence or a phrase to communicate a
message. In this sense, whatever we say, the significance is that we actually
communicate a message. For example, whatever we say like “How do you do, Good
morning, Hi… we are actually making an act of greeting, i.e. a speech act.
2. A sentence is realized by an utterance or many different utterances. We can only
realize the words, phrases and sentence structure of what we say as a sentence through
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the realization of an actual utterance. Briefly, a sentence may have different utterances
as tokens.
III. Propositions-Sentences-Utterances
We can say that the same proposition can be encoded by a sentence or more than one
sentence with different structures and words. For example, when we look into the sky and
see this , we can express our thought about this phenomenon with one of the
following sentences:
It’s raining.
It rains.
It has started raining.
Here comes the rain.
It’s rainy.
At this stage, these potential sentences are conceived as abstract units of language that
stay in your mind. When we already determine on what sentence to speak it out, we just make
an act of uttering this sentence and we actually make an utterance. However, the same
sentence can be realized into many different utterances depending on the context of utterance,
such as the time and place of utterance, who utters it, who is intended to receive the message
of the utterance. For example, the same sentence It’s raining can be uttered by different
speakers in different contexts, and accordingly can be interpreted as different utterances with
different implications or purposes.
Man to girlfriend: “It’s raining”. (Please stay here)
Girl to mother: “It’s raining”. (I can’t go to buy the salt for you)
Wife to husband: “It’s raining”. (Please collect the clothes on the hanging rope in the garden)
To sum up, to make a verbal communicate act, a speaker typically starts with the
process of producing a proposition in his/her mind. Then he/she may have the need to speak it
out. To do this, he/she has to put words together into a sentence. Now, if he decides to speak it
out, he/she just says it loud in the form of speech sounds with a certain intonation pattern.
This is an action of communication with an utterance as a unit of talk. If the same speaker or
another speaker utters this sentence in a different particular occasion with a different intention
or purpose, they are said to make different utterances. This process can be represented in the
diagrams below.
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The representation of the three-phase process of making an utterance
P: an abstract
semantic entity P P
it - rain
S: a linguistic S [It’s raining]

entity
U “It’s raining”
U: an action of
communication
7/12/2008 13
The representation of the inter-relationship between

Proposition, Sentence & Utterance
P (it – rain)
P
S1… S1 … S2 … Sn
U
U1… Un… U1… Un… U1… Un
7/12/2008 14
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Further reading http://www.lingo.ntnu.no/engsem/Pages/terms.html#Anchor
Propositional meaning:
Each sentence has two components in its meaning, namely the conventional meaning of the
sentence, sometimes called the proposition associated with this sentence, and the intended
speech act. Thus, if we represent the skeleton of the meaning (the proposition) in a semi-
formalized way and add the grammatical information carried by each sentence type in the
example in A, we get the following possibilities with the same proposition (B):
A.
a. Emma went to the supermarket.
b. Did Emma go to the supermarket?
c. Emma, go to the supermarket!
d. If only Emma would go to the supermarket.
B.
a. EMMA GO TO THE SUPERMARKET + declarative = statement
b. EMMA GO TO THE SUPERMARKET + interrogative = question
c. EMMA GO TO THE SUPERMARKET + imperative = order
d. EMMA GO TO THE SUPERMARKET + optative = wish
Sentence vs proposition:
http://lings.ln.man.ac.uk/Students/Resits/LI1032/LI1032SampleExam.pdf
A sentence (S) has no inherent truth value, but has truth conditions: certain conditions must
be met for a sentence meaning to be true (or false)
Determining whether S is true or false is its propositional content
Sentence
expresses a complete thought, can be free-standing, not inherently true/false
Proposition
attributes some property to an entity or a relation between two entities. It is the thought that
the sentence expresses, which is true or false. It consists minimally of a predicate (the verb)
and its arguments (noun phrases, e.g. its subject and object)
i.
We walk in the park
ii.
Our walk in the park
iii.
For us to walk in the park
i. is a sentence; all three express the same proposition
the differences among them are grammatical not semantic/propositional
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Practice 2.4
Fill in the chart below with (+) to represent the presence of this characteristic with
utterances, sentences or propositions, or (-) to represent the absence of this characteristic
with each of these semantic entities.
Utterances Sentences Propositions

Can be loud or quiet
Can be grammatical or not
Can be true of false
In a particular regional action
In a particular language
(Source: Hurford, 1996 , p. 22)
UNIT 3
MEANING - COMPONENTS OF MEANING
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There are various approaches defining meaning as having two components. To start with the
distinction of the two components of meaning we will deal with the two basic concepts:
reference and sense. Then we will present the other related issues of reference and sense such
as the contrast between denotation and connotation, between the extension and intension.
A. REFERENCE AND SENSE: THE TWO COMPONENTS OF MEANING
Meaning is a notion in semantics classically defined as having two components:

Reference and sense
I. Reference:
1. Definition:
Reference is the relationship between words and the things, actions, events, and
qualities they stand for.
Reference in its wider sense would be the relationship between a word or phrase and
entity in the external world (see DENOTATION). For example, the word tree refers to the
object “tree” (the referent).
Reference, in its narrow sense is the relationship between a word or phrase and a
specific object, e.g. a particular tree or a particular animal. For example, Peter’s horse would
refer to a horse which is owned, ridden by, or in some way associated with Peter.
Further reading Lyons 1981
(Richard (1985) p.310)
“Look at my dog”

Speaker Act of pointing/referring Referent (thing being referred to)
Based on the relationship between the linguistic expression my dog and the referent the
living creature being talked about in that situation, we can say that reference is the
relationship between a particular linguistic expression and the referent being pointed at in a
particular occasion or context. This relationship can be illustrated in the diagram below.
Linguistic expression Reference Referent
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“My dog”
(Referential meaning) 
Here we can see that by an act of pointing or referring to a particular thing in the
world, a particular speaker is making an act of connecting a linguistic expression (my dog) to
a particular thing in the world (the actual thing/creature that we can see or imagine in that
particular context of utterance).
2. Characteristics:
Typically, the thing we are pointing at or talking about can be seen or heard or even
touched (e.g. when a particular speaker says to us “Touch your left ear” we actually touch our
left ear and we can feel something with its thickness between our fingers …). But we should
remember that we can only do this if the linguistic expression “your left ear” is
comprehensible, i.e. we can understand this piece of language to fulfill the order “Touch your
left ear”.
Table 3.1. Reference and the function of connecting language to the world
Reference: The referent:

the relationship between part of the world:
the expression touchable, visible and audible
(part of the language) The expression
and the referent part of the language:
(part of the world) readable and intelligible
II. Sense:
1. Definition:
The place which a word or phrase (a LEXEME) holds in the system of relationships
with other words in the vocabulary of a language. For example, the English words bachelor
and married have the sense relationship of bachelor = never married.
The sense of a word is its cognitive meaning as determined by its place within the
semantic system of the language. The word mother has the sense ‘parent and female’, in
contrast to father ‘parent and male’, both of the words contrasting with child, son, and
daughter in a set of related kinship terms. Football is definable as a ball game with certain
characteristics, in contrast with other words for ball games, such as basketball and netball.
Come is a verb of movement in contrast with go; sad is an adjective of emotion, a synonym of
unhappy and an antonym of happy; down and up are contrasting pairs of prepositions of
direction; and and or are contrasting co-ordinating conjunctions, the first indicating merely a
link between two items and the second a disjunction. Words may have more than one sense.
In one sense, brother is a kinship term, in another sense it is a religious terms.
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Further reading
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisitcTerms
In discussions about semantic analysis, a sense is the meaning of a lexical unit.
E.g. "define each sense of the lexeme"
"compare lexically related senses"
Sense:
http://www.lingo.ntnu.no/engsem/Pages/terms.html#Anchor
Sense is determined by how the expression at hand relates to other expressions in the same
language. Frege's (1892) classical example illustrates this: the planet Venus has two names,
namely the morning star and the evening star. They share the same referent but differ in their
sense. Other types of intra-linguistic (i.e. inside language) relations on which sense depends
are relations of semantic opposition, typically called antonymy, relations of equivalence,
called synonymy, and the like.
2. Characteristics:
1. The same word can have more than one sense.
E.g. the word bank has two senses: (1) the financial institution & (2) the river side
2. The same word can have more than one interpretation and therefore, can cause
ambiguity due to polysemy and homonymy.
E.g. The sentence I don’t like this fork is ambiguous because it may have two interpretations:
(1) fork = the division of a road & (2)
3. Lexical decomposition (Componential Analysis)
One method that the linguists have used to characterize the sense of words is called lexical
decomposition. This method represents the sense of a word in terms of the semantics features
that comprise it. For example, consider the words man, woman, boy and girl. The sense of
each of each of these words can be partly characterized by specifying a value (+ or -) for the
features [+ adult] and [+ female] as follows.
man woman boy girl
[adult] + + - -
[male] + - + -
The lexical decomposition or componental analysis makes use of the semantic features
or semantic properties in its process of assigning the value [+] or [-] to a linguistic expression,
namely the morphemes and words. To understand more about this semantic analysis we
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should pay our attention to the basic notions related to sense as presented in the following
subsections.
a) Semantic properties (also, semantic components, semantic features):
These are the basic units of a word. The semantics of a word may be described as a
combination of semantic features, e.g. the semantic feature [+ male] is part of the meaning of
father, and so is the feature [+ adult] but other features are needed to give the whole concept
or sense of father
These are also piece of information we have about a word which may be stored in our
mental lexicon dictionary. For example the word assassinate may arouse in the speaker’s and
hearer’s mind these pieces of information:
[agent: human, murderer; person killed: important person]
- The same semantic property may be part of the meaning of many different words, e.g.
female is a semantic property that helps to define tigress, hen, doe, ewe, mare, actress,
widow, woman, maiden
- The same semantic property may occur in words of different categories, e.g. female in
breast-feed (V), pregnant (A), and cause in kill, darken, beautify
b) Semantic features are also understood as semantic categories/ properties that indicate the
relations or classes that a word may have or share with other words.
This can be illustrated in the overlap in meaning between 2 or more words where they share
some but not all the semantic features.
E.g. sister niece aunt mother nun mistress
[human] + + + + + +
[male] - - - - - -
[kin] + + + + - -
meaning
of sister meaning
of niece
[+human]
[-male]
[+kin]
Figure 3.1 Illustration of overlap (adapted from Parker, 1994, p.42)

- A certain semantic category may imply others, e.g. human implies animate
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- redundancy rules:
 one feature automatically contains another,
 Some semantic redundancy rules reveal negative properties,
e.g. [ +human] [- abstract]
B. DENOTATIVE MEANING & CONNOTATIVE MEANING
I. Denotative meaning (Denotation):

According to some linguists, namely Fromkin, Blair and Collins (1990), denotation is
a type of meaning that can be described in terms of a set of semantic properties which serve to
identify the concept associated with the word in question. To some other linguists, denotation
is that part of meaning of a word or phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real word or in a
fictional or possible world. For example, the denotation of the English word bird is a two-
legged, winged, egg-laying, warm-blooded creature with a beak. In a meaning system,
denotative meaning may be regarded as the “central” meaning or “core” meaning of a lexical
item. It is often equated with referential meaning and with cognitive meaning and conceptual
meaning although some other linguists and philosophers make a distinction between these
concepts.
II. Connotative meaning (Connotation):
The connotations are the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its
central meaning. These meanings show people’s demotion and attitudes towards what the
word or phrase refers to. For example, child could be defined as a young human being but
these are many other characteristics which different people associate with child, e.g.
affectionate, amusing, lovable, sweet, mischievous, noisy, irritating, grubby.
Some connotations may be shared by a group of people of the same cultural or social
background, sex, or age; others may be restricted one or several individuals and depends on
their personal experience.
In a meaning system, that part of the meaning which is covered by connotation is
sometimes referred to as effective meaning, connotative meaning or emotive meaning.
In short, connotations are affective or evaluative associations that a word may have
besides denotative meaning.
C. EXTENSION AND INTENSION
I. Extension:
The extension of word is all the set of all individuals to which that word can truthfully
be applied. It is the set of things which can potentially be referred to by using a linguistic
expression.
E.g. the extension of window is the set of all windows (in the past, present, future) in the
universe.
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II. Intension:
The intension of a word corresponds to the semantic properties or features or notions
that describe or define the entities denoted by that word.
E.g. the word wolf may evoke such notions that define a category of wolves as [+ wild
animal], [+ canine], [+ beastie].
As mentioned earlier, extension is the set of entities that constitutes a category denoted
by a word. As compared, the intension of a word can be understood as the attributes that
define a category, e.g., what makes a cat a cat, and not, e.g., a zebra. Whereas a word’s
extension corresponds to the set of entities that it picks out in the world, its intension
corresponds to inherent senses, the concepts that it evokes. Thus the extension of woman
would be a set of real world entities (women) while its intension would involves notions like
‘female’ and ‘human’. Similarly, the phrase Prime Minister of Great Britain would have as its
extension an individual (‘Gordon Brown’), but its intension would involve the concept ‘leader
of the majority party in Parliament’. The distinction between a word’s intension and its
extension simply permits us to pose the question of meaning in a new way: what is the nature
of a word’s inherent sense or intension?
Phrase Extension Intension
Prime Minister of Britain Gordon Brown leader of the majority party in Parliament
Wimbledon Champion (2008) Rafael Nadal winner of the tennis championship
capital of California Sacramento city containing the state legislature
Table 3.2. Extension versus intension (Adapted from O’Grady (1993, p.215)
Further reading
How does the extension and the intension of a word differ?

EXTENSION AND INTENSION
extension of a lexical item is the set of entities which it denotes. Extension of DOG includes
all Dobermans, Chihuahuas, hounds, collies that have ever lived will ever exist or have ever
been accepted as a dog.
Some expressions have a set of one entity they refer to Caspian Sea
intension of a lexical expression is the set of properties or features shared by all members of
the extension. Extension relates to reference (Caspian Sea has unique reference). Extension
may change, but intension remains constant.
President of the United States or Prime Minister of Great Britain always has the same
intension (the properties which define someone as being the President or Prime Minister)
Extension changes every time someone else becomes it
Further reading
18
Componential analysis:
An approach to representing word meaning which employs a formal metalanguage. Using
this approach the meaning of words is decomposed into smaller components of meaning,
called features. The meaning of "man" for instance, can be decomposed into:
[HUMAN] [MALE] [ADULT]. One of the conventions in componential analysis is to use
capital letters for the feature labels to suggest that this is a metalinguistic use of language.
Another convention is to employ binary features (i.e. the +/- sign) to signal the presence
or absence of a certain feature. This way of encoding is more advantageous and more
economical than using the opposite of the feature, such as [MALE] versus [FEMALE], and
so on.
Features are considered primitives of semantic analysis, which means that each feature is not
further decomposable into smaller units.
Denotation:
The class of entities in the world a word selects. Denotation is constant and context-
independent; for example, the word "dog" always denotes the whole class, or species, called
dogs and whenever this word is used, one has the set-association. It has been suggested by
Lyons (1995) that denotation includes both extension and intension. Denotation is related to
the word as a dictionary entry, that is, the word in isolation and not as part of a phrase.
(See extension, prototype & stereotype P. 76-100)
The emotive function: An orientation towards the addresser characterizes the emotive
function of language and is employed whenever the speaker tries to express an attitude or an
emotion by using language.
D. REFERENCE VS SENSE, EXTENSION AND DENOTATION
1. In talking of sense we deal with relationships inside the language, bachelor = never
married. In this sense, sense is the intension of a lexical unit.
2. In talking of reference we deal with the relationship between language and the world.
In this sense, reference has something to do with the extension of a word or phrase,
and in its broader sense, for some linguists, it can be understood as denotation. Like
extension, the denotation of a word is the relationship between the word and the set of
entities, situations, and attributes that exist outside the language. In its most common
use of the word cat denotes (or refers to) a class of small four-legged domesticated
animals; the adjective round denotes a particular shape; talk denotes a type of activity.
The word unicorn denotes a particular shape; talk denotes a type of activity.
3. The referent of an expression in its narrow sense, is often a thing or a person (i.e.
something more concrete than abstract entity).
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4. The sense of an expression is not a thing at all. The senses of a word are also the
concepts or notions that define a set of things. Every expression that has meaning has
sense, but not every expression has reference. Whereas every word has one or more
senses, not every word has a denotation. For example the articles a and the and the
conjunctions and and because have sense that can be defined for their use in the
language, but they do not denote anything outside the language.
E. SENSE VS PROPOSITION
1. A proposition corresponds to a complete independent thought. As we have

mentioned earlier, a proposition is the basic meaning which a sentence expresses and thus it
consists of
(a) something which is named or talked about (usually linguistically realized as
subject or object of a sentence);
(b) an assertion or predication which is made about the that thing (usually
linguistically realized as predicate/verb phrase).
2. The sense of a single word or phrase only indicates concepts, not complete
thought.
Practice 3.0
Are the senses of the following expressions propositions?
1) John has got a new typewriter.
2) A new master (not understood as an elliptical sentence)
3) John (not understood as an elliptical sentence)
3) This is the house that Jack built.
(Hurford, 1983, p. 31)
Further reading
http://www.lingo.ntnu.no/engsem/Pages/terms.html#Anchor-Denotation-17029
Reference:
In contrast to denotation, reference is concrete, specific and context-dependent. As such, it is
related to expressions rather than words. In a type of referring expression called definite
descriptions (e.g., phrases like "the man", "John's father", "that man over there") one can
recognize two parts: a referential part and a descriptive part. For instance, in "the
President", the definite article "the" takes care of pointing to a specific entity in the real
world ("pointing words" are technically called deictic words), and, as such performs a
referential function, whereas the noun "President" describes what kind of entity the referent
is. This example justifies keeping denotation and reference separate and supports the idea
that reference can be attributed only to complex expressions, since only phrases are likely to
include deictic words, such as the article or demonstrative pronouns.
The referential approach to meaning:
Suggests that meaning should be sought in the extra-linguistic entity an expression (the
smallest expression being a word) picks out in the real world (the referent). The main
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justification for this type of approach is that language is used to talk about the world and the
objects "out there" which attract our attention. Thus, from this perspective, the most natural
thing to do in order to interpret messages encoded in language is to look at the referents,
whether objects, classes of objects or situations.
Problems with the referential approach:
For some words there are simply no referents (e.g. all functional words, like e.g. a and the).
Some expressions point to non-existent or fictional referents: elves, gnomes, the President (in
a country which is a monarchy).
The idea, held by some, that things out in the world do not have an inherent structure and
that any structure we perceive is just that, i.e. perceived.
Further reading
The difference between the denotation and connotation of a word. How these concepts relate
to homonyms or synonyms.
denotation
knowledge speakers have about a particular language expression that makes its use in a
particular instance of reference successful, a generally agreed upon set of features generally
shared among all, the `central aspect' of a word's meaning
connotation
is the emotive of affective responses associated with a particular linguistic expression; this
may differ radically from speaker to speaker and culture to culture
DOG denotes a four-legged, furry mammal, belonging to the genus canis connotes VERY
DIFFERENT things to different people/cultures:
- pet, friendly,
- used for hunting, guarding, sled-pulling
- smelly, vicious
- makes a good meal
synonyms frequently have more or less identical denotations, but quite different
connotations
Some synonymous expressions are more appropriate in certain contexts than others
E.g. died, passed away, is taking a dirt nap, is pushing daisies etc.
It is unlikely to use these in the same contexts, although they all denote the same state
E.g. thin, slender, svelte, skinny
UNIT 4
REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
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TYPES OF REFERENCE & DEICTIC FUNCTIONS
The referential function:
When the message is informative and says something about entities present in the
communicative context, language is used with a referential function. The question here is how
can this function be achieved?
In everyday conversations, very often we make use of body language such as pointing with
our finger at the thing we are taking about. And in most cases, linguistic expressions of
various types may be utilized to fulfill this referential function. This will be discussed in
section below.
A. REFERRING EXPRESSION
I. Definition:
A referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or
someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a particular
referent in mind. (Hurford, 1983, p.35)
E.g. the name Fred in the utterance Fred hit me (where the speaker has a particular person in
mind when he says Fred) is a referring expression.
But when the speaker says “There is no Fred at this at this address” and he would not
have a particular person in mind in uttering the word “Fred”, this is not a referring expression.
1. The same expression can be a referring expression or not depending on the context,
E.g. A/ an + NP
A man was here looking for you yesterday.
I’m a man.
2. The linguistic context often gives a vital clue as to whether the indefinite noun phrase
is a referring expression or not, but sometimes it does not give a clear indication.
E.g. A man was here looking for you yesterday.
The first sign of the monsoon was the dark cloud no bigger a man’s hand at the
horizon.
3. The ambiguity caused by indefinite noun phrase can be solved by the use of the word
certain immediately following the indefinite article a.
John is looking for a car.
John is looking for a certain car.
III. Linguistic realizations of referring expressions
1. Proper names: E.g. John
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2. Personal pronouns: E.g. he/she/you/I/we
3. Complex noun phrases: the girl sitting over there
4. Cases of general type with every/ what/ whoever/ all/ and modal expressions are
not clear. For example, in Every man who owns a donkey beats it, the pronoun is
not a referring expression, due to the presence of the universal quantifier every in
the same sentence. The pronoun it here may be used to talk about any member of
the set of donkeys.
Practice 4.1
Could the following possibly be used as referring expressions? Circle the answer of
your choice.
1) John 5) a man
2) My uncle 6) my parents
3) and 7) send
4) the girl sitting on the wall by the bus stop 8) under
IV. Referring expressions in a broader view:
Any expression that can be used to refer to any entity in the real world or any imaginary
world will be called a referring expression, e.g. God, Moses, that unicorn. In this sense, we
accept that the referential realm is anything, real or imagined, that a person may talk about.
Referent – physical object or not physical object?
Language is used to talk about the real world, and can be used to talk about an infinite
variety of abstractions, and even of entities in imaginary, unreal worlds, e.g. my chair, British
National Anthem
Practice 4.2
How can you point at the person(s) in the pictures below? (You can use different referring
expressions, for example, the full name, the first name, the title, the nickname …).
1) 2) 3)
4) 5) 6)
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7) 8)
B. TYPES OF REFERENCE
I. Variable reference:
The same expression can be used to refer to different things. In this case, the act of
referring much depends on the particular time/occasion of a particular utterance. For example,
each time we say touch your left ear to a particular listener or addressee, the phrase your left
ear may be used to point at a particular ear, i.e. the ear which belongs to the addressee being
talked to.
If we say the phrase the present Prime Minister of Britain in different definite points of
time, we may mean or refer to different persons:
“the present Prime Minister of Britain” (uttered in 1945)
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Or we just help the addressee to identify who is being talked about by the use of the
post-modifier to make the reference more specific. For example, “the Prime Minister of
Britain in 1995” or “the Prime Minister of Britain in 2008)
II. Constant reference:
This is the situation where some expressions can never refer to different things
regardless of the linguistic or situational context they are used or uttered. The referent of the
words or phrases is typically a unique thing or person in this world or universe and this
knowledge is shared by many speakers in the same speech community. For example, the
linguistic expression “the moon”, “the earth” always refer to same thing that we know that it
is unique in the universe.
The same thing can be said to proper names such as name denoting a particular
individual or name denoting a particular country … like Winston Churchill, Margaret
Thatcher, Vietnam, Angola, The People’s Republic of China.
According to the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer we also have
definite reference and indefinite reference. The former is the situation when the referent or the
image of the referent is unique to the known/relevant world for the speaker and hearer. For
example, the use of the proper name “Tom Cruise” or the complex noun phrase with pre-
modifier/post-modifier “my uncle”, the boy standing in the corner” to refer to a particular
thing or person in a particular context.
III. Co-reference:
1. Definition:
Co-reference is the reference in one expression to the same referent in another
expression. Two linguistic expressions that have the same extra-linguistic referent are said to
be co-referential. In other words this is a case of two or more words/morphemes referring to
the same entity.
E.g. In the following sentence, both you's have the same referent:
You said you would come.
Or in the sentence The Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the expressions The Earth and
the third planet from the Sun are co-referential because they both refer to the same extra-
linguistic object, namely the heavenly body that we are spinning around on right now.
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2. Kinds of co-reference:
1) Anaphora
Anaphora is co-reference of one expression with its antecedent. The antecedent
provides the information necessary for the expression's interpretation. This is often
understood as an expression “referring” back to the antecedent
E.g. In the following sequence, the relationship of the pronoun he to the noun phrase a well-
dressed man is an example of anaphora:
A well-dressed man was speaking; he had a foreign accent.
2) Zero anaphora
Zero anaphora is the use of a gap, in a phrase or clause, that has an anaphoric function
similar to a pro-form. It is often described as “referring back” to an expression that supplies
the information necessary for interpreting the gap.
E.g. There are two roads to eternity , a straight and narrow, and a broad and crooked
In this sentence, the gaps in a straight and narrow [gap], and a broad and crooked [gap] have
a zero anaphoric relationship to two roads to eternity.
(Source: Hartmann and Stork 1972 258–259, Crystal 1985 339)
3) Cataphora
Cataphora is the co-reference of one expression with another expression which follows
it. The following expression provides the information necessary for interpretation of the
preceding one. This is often understood as an expression “referring” forward to another
expression
E.g. In the following sentence, the relationship of one to a towel is an example of cataphora:
If you need one, there's a towel in the top drawer.
3. Linguistic realizations of co-reference:
NPs: I talked with Harry yesterday and the big lunk wants to see me today as well!
Pronouns: I saw Mary and fell in love with her
Reflexives: I hit myself
VPs: I kissed the president and so did Monica.
Instances of co-reference can also be found in such kinds of sentences as equative
sentences which are used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions.
For example, the equative sentence Mrs. Thatcher is the Prime minister asserts that two
referring expressions: Mrs. Thatcher and The Prime Minister have the same referent.
The verb “to be” used in equative sentence denotes or expresses a type of identity
relation
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Practice 4.3
Examine the italic word(s)/phrase(s) in the following sentence(s)/paragraph(s) and state what
type of co-reference is used.
1) These talks are the key to underlocking the outflow of money for investment from Japan.
The failure of the negotiations has resulted in an appreciation of the yen. [International Herald
Tribune, 29 August 1994, p.1]
2) Let me put it this way (…) initially observations on that vessel […] were by police in South
Wales (…) Were the customs aware of these observations …
3) My cat, a ginger male, is lost. If you have seen him, please phone me [notice attached on a
tree in north-west London]
4) When one feels an emotion, certain involuntary changes occur within us. These include
changes in salivation, breathing, heart rate, perspiration and muscle tone.
5) Steve checks over his uh shoulder to see if there are any dangers. There are none
whatsoever.
6) There are two main components in coffee: soluble and insoluble substances. The former are
the caffeine, sugar and proteins, the latter the oils and colloids. Italians know how to express
it so well’, by Chris Long, The Independent, 28 December 1992, p.11]
to the whole previous sentence
7) I had to find out where the controlled drugs were kept, and how they were ordered,
delivered and paid for. This meant getting involved in administration […]
8) Chris brought us freedom from the curse of the law by becoming for our sake accursed
thing (.) for Scripture says the curse is on everyone who is hanged on the gibbet (.) The
reference here is to the exhibition of the dead body not a lingering execution
9) ‘This is it. This is my life; it’s like being a retired person,’ said Pete Sampras, the world
top-ranked tennis player and the defending champion of the U.S Open [International Herald
Tribune, 29 August 1994, p.17]
10) Stereotyped sentences:
the news
This is what I mean
Here is how to do it
how it goes
These/Here again are the main points of the news
These/Here are the results
Nerve injuries have been classified into various grades and these are discussed below.
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You may find the above questions obvious, for which I apologise […]
C. DEFINITENESS AND THE USE OF DEFINITE ARTICLE THE
If some entiti(es) (i.e. person(s),object(s), place(s) are the ONLY entities of their kind
in the context of an utterance, then the is appropriately used in referring to that entity. For
example if I carry on a conversation with a friend about the time five years earlier, when we
first met in Egypt (and now we are holding the conversation in the garden of my house in
Britain), then the sentence/utterance “Do you remember when we first met at the university?”
would be more appropriate than the sentence/utterance “Do you remember when we first met
at a university?”, and the sentence/utterance “Shall we go into the house now?” would be
appropriate than the sentence/utterance “Shall we go into a house now?” .
When a speaker say to someone “A man from Dundee stole my wallet”, he would not
be assuming that the hearer will bring into mind a particular man from Dundee and will be
able to identify this man by associating him with facts already known about him. If the
assumes that the hearer already remembers and knows which man is being talked about, he
would usually say “the man from Dundee stole my wallet”. In this case, the encoding and
decoding of the referring expression “the man from Dundee” in the utterance “The man from
Dundee stole my wallet” is based on the presupposition between the speaker and the hearer.
This presupposition is known as the shared knowledge that is not spoken out but should be
accepted as tacit agreement about a certain piece of information that both the speaker and the
hearer agree upon. For example when I say “Open the door please” I would assume that the
hearer would share the same presupposition with me that there is at least one door in the room
and this door is being closed. If there is no presupposition like this or the hearer does not hold
such presupposition, the utterance would be of no value. To establish such presupposition we
have base our interpretation on context: linguistic context and extra-linguistic context.
1. Contexts are constructed continuously during the course of a conversation, e.g.
things mentioned for the first time, then the indefinite a should be used to introduce the thing
or referent into the context. For example, I may report the burglary yesterday like this:
“Yesterday there was a thief breaking into my house”
2. Once things are established in the context of the conversation, i.e. it is already
mentioned and the hearer or reader has already known which one is being talked about, then
the definite the should be used to help the hearer identify which referent is being mentioned in
the context. For example
“Yesterday there was a thief breaking into my house. The thief jumped into the
window and broke my glasses …”
3. Using definite referring expressions as narrative stylistic style to draw the reader
into the narrative fast, by giving the impression that the writher and readers are sharing a
number of contextual assumptions.
“Yesterday the thief jumped into the window and broke my glasses …”
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In other situation, the speaker and the hearer may not share the knowledge about the
existence of the thing being talked about. This type of indefinite reference, in turn, can be
classified into two sub-types:
1) The linguistic expression is used by the speaker who assumes that the referent being
mentioned is unknown to the hearer or addressee, and sometimes even unknown to the
speaker.
E.g. "There’s a man I want you to know"
2) The linguistic expression is used by the speaker who assumes that the thing being talked
about is not unique but is any member that represents all members of the same set/group.
E.g. "A good servant is hard to find"
In this case, this type of reference is also called generic reference which is mentioned
in generic sentences. These are sentences in which some statement is made about a whole
unrestricted class of individuals, as opposed to any particular individual. For example
The whale is a mammal/the largest mammal.
In this sentence the whale does not pick out any particular object in the world (as whale). and
thus a mammal/the largest mammal do not refer to some particular mammal.
1. Generic sentence can be introduced by a or the (or neither). E.g.
A tiger lives in the jungle.
The tiger is the predator.
Tigers have sharp claws.
2. The subject in a generic sentence is not a referring expression because it does not
refer to any particular individual in the world.
A tiger lives in the jungle. (any tiger in the class of tigers. The speaker does not
mention which one)
3. If the verb is used in the past tense or present continuous it is not likely a generic
sentence. E.g.
A wasp stung me on the neck.
4. If the subject is expressed by a proper name or with a modifier it is not a generic
sentence. E.g.
Jasper is a twit.
29
Further reading
Reference and the article (Quirk, 1975)
Specific/generic reference
In discussing the use of the articles, it is essential to make a distinction between specific and
generic reference. If we say
A lion and two tigers are sleeping in the cage
The reference is specific, since we have in mind specific specimens of the class ‘tiger’. If, on
the other hand, we say
Tigers are dangerous animals
The reference is specific, since we are thinking of the class ‘tiger’ without special reference to
specific tigers. The distinction is important for count nouns with specific reference disappear
with generic reference. This is so because generic reference is used to denote what is normal
or typical for members of a class.
Singular or plural, definite or indefinite can sometimes be used without change in the generic
meaning, though plural definite occurs chiefly with nationality names:
The German
is a good musician.
A German
The Germans
are good musicians
Germans
With non-count nouns, only the zero article is possible:
Music can be soothing
Generic reference
Nationality words and adjectives as head
Two kinds of adjectives can acts as noun-phrase head with generic reference
PLURAL PERSONAL (E.g. the French = the French nation; the rich = those who are rich)
SINGULAR NON-PERSONAL ABSRACT (E.g. the evil = that which is evil)
There is considerable interdependence between the dynamic/stative dichotomy in the verb
phrase and the specific/generic dichotomy in the noun phrase, as appears in the following
examples:
generic reference/simple aspect The tiger lives in the jungle
simple aspect The tiger at this circus performs twice a day
specific reference progressive aspect The tiger is sleeping in the cage
30
generic reference/simple aspect The English drink beer in pubs
simple aspect The Englishmen (who live here) drink beer every day
Specific reference/progressive aspect The English are just now drinking beer is the garden
Specific reference
Indefinite and definite
Just as we have seen in the previous part a correspondence between aspect and reference in
respect pf generic and specific, so we have known a correspondence between the simple and
perfective in respect of what must be regarded as the basic article contrast:
An intruder has stolen a vase;
The intruder stole the vase from a locked cupboard;
the cupboard was smashed open.
As we see in this explicit example, the definite article presupposes an earlier mention of the
item so determined. But in actual usage the relation presupposition and the definite article
may be much less overt. For example, a conversation may begin:
The house on the corner is for sale
and the postmodification passes for some such unspoken preamble as
There is, as you know, a house on the corner
Compare also What is the climate like? – that is, the climate of the area being discussed. Even
more covert are the presuppositions which permit the definite article in examples like the
following:
John asked his wife to put on the kettle while he looked in the paper to see what was on the
radio
No prior mention of a kettle, a paper, a radio is needed, since these things are part of the
cultural situation.
On a broader plane, we talk of the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky as aspects of experience
common to mankind as a whole. These seem to require to earlier indefinite reference because
each term is so specific as to be in fact unique for practical human purposes. This gives them
something approaching the status of those proper names which are based on common count
nouns: the Bible, the United States, for example.
Note:
The indefinite article used with a proper name means “a certain”, one giving his name as A
Mr Johnson wants to speak to you
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The definite article given heavy stress is used (especially informally) to indicate superlative
quality
Chelsea is THE place for young people
Are you THE Mr Johnson (=the famous)?
Discourse reference (Quirk, 1975, 302-305)
There are a number of signals marking the identity between what is being said and what has
been said before. They have been brought together here because they have in common a
deictic reference, that is to say, they point back (ANPHORIC) or forward (CATAPHORIC) in
discourse.
Sentence/clause reference
Common signals for sentence or clause reference:
anaphoric and cataphoric: here, it, this
anaphoric only: that, the foregoing (formal)
cataphoric only: as follows, the following, thus
Anaphoric examples:
Many years ago their wives quarreled over some trivial matter, now long forgotten. But one
word led to another and the quarrel developed into a permanent rupture between them. That’s
why the two men never visit each other’s houses.
Many students never improve. They get no advice and therefore they keep repeating the same
mistakes. It’s a terrible shame.
Students want to be shown connections between facts instead of spending their time
memorizing dates and formulas. Reflecting this, the university is moving away from large
survey courses and breaking down academic fences in order to show subjects relating to one
another.
Cataphoric examples
This should interest you, if you’re still keen on boxing. The world heavyweight championship
is going to be held in Chicago next June, so you should be able to watch it live.
Here is the news. A diplomat was kidnapped last night in London … (radio announcement)
It never should have happened. She went out and left the baby unattended.
My arguments are as follows …
Above and below are used in formal written discourse to indicate where units of varying
length and illustrations are to be found: the arguments given below (perhaps referring to
several sentences), the diagrams below illustrate … There is no determinable limit to the
32
distance between them and the place they refer to. The above is used with anaphoric reference
(but *the below has no corresponding use):
The above illustrates what mean by …
Noun-phrase reference
Certain determiners can be used to signal that a noun phrase is referentially equivalent to a
previous noun phrase: the, this, these, that, those. The noun phrases may have identical heads,
but may be co-referential without the heads being identical:
He bought a battered, old black van in 1970. What a lot of money he earned with that vehicle.
Students are free to select optional courses from any field that touches on American studies.
These options are very popular.
These co-reference of two noun phrases may be emphasized by one of identical, same,
selfsame (formal), very:
He spoke to a meeting of striking workers that evening. Those same workers had previously
refused to listen to his speeches.
These determiners and adjectives can be used to indicate identity of type rather than co-
reference:
He bought a Jaguar XJ6. I ordered that same car the previous year.
Such is used specifically to indicates identity of type:
They regularly get The Daily Courier. I wouldn’t read such a paper.
Like plus that or those is also used anaphorically for identity of type, and postmodifies the
noun-phrase head:
Like this and (informally) this way are used cataphorically:
like this
He held it : George was running down the road and …
this way
The demonstratives can be used as pro-form for noun phrases:
I hear that you dislike his latest novel. I read his first novel. That was very boring, too.
Normally, demonstratives replace noun phrases with a human referent only in intensive
clauses with a nominal complement:
Will you try and help me find Peter Williams? That’s the man I was telling you about.
Former and latter (both mainly formal written English) are used anaphorically to single out
one of two previous noun phrases:
Bob and John were at the meeting. The former brought his wife with him. (‘Bob’)
If the latter was used instead, the reference would be John. These two terms can also be used
as reference signals when they premodify:
33
Bill Singer and Tom Patterson were charged with being drunk and disorderly. The latter
student had two previous convictions on such charges.
Similarly, when ther are more than two previous noun phrases that might be refereed to, the
ordinals first, second, etch, and last can be used anaphorically to single out one of several
phrases.
The ordinals and former and latter can also refer back to clausal units was well as noun
phrases:
He explained that he had lost a lot of money and that he had also quarreled with his wife. The
former seemed to have upset him more than the latter.
So and (rather informally) that can have anaphoric reference when they are intensifiers
premodifying an adjective:
There were two thousand people in the theatre. I didn’t expect it to be so/(all) that full.
Such is used more commonly than so or that when the adjective is in a noun phrase.
… I didn’t expect such a large audience.
D. DEIXIS
All languages do contain a small set of words whose meanings vary systematically
according to who uses them, and where and when they are used. These words are called
deictic words; the general phenomenon of their occurrence is called deixis. The word deixis is
from a Greek word meaning pointing.
Deixis involves the use of expressions to refer directly to the situation within which an
utterance is taking place, and their interpretation is therefore dependent on features of that
situation. For example, the pronoun I is necessarily deictic, since it must refer to the speaker
or writer: in a conversation, the reference of I shifts according to who is speaking. Deictic
expressions typically refer to persons and objects in the situation and to temporal and
locational features. When you say Don’t drop it, you may be using the pronoun it to refer to
something present in the situation that you have not previously named, and when you say You
can’t sit here the pronoun you refers to the person you are addressing and the adverb here
may refer directly to a place visible to the person you are addressing, a place that you may not
have mentioned before. The use of the imperative in Don’t drop it introduces a reference to
future time, a time later than that of the utterance.
The concept of deixis is sometimes extended from situational deixis (the use of
expression to point at some feature of the situation) to textual deixis (the use of expressions to
point at other expressions in the text). Textual deixis contributes to cohesion because of its
linkage to previous or subsequent words in the text. References to what come earlier in the
text are anaphoric as mentioned before in section whereas references to what come afterwards
are cataphoric.
34
I. Deictic word:
1. Definition:
A deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation (i.e.
the speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used.
(Hurford, 1983, p.63)
E.g. When Mohammad Ali said: “I’m the greatest!” (He uttered before the heavyweight
championship match against Joe Fraysier) the pronoun I refers to the speaker, namely
Mohammad Ali.
2. Characteristics:
The speaker can give some indication of his location/ time of event by using words
expressing spatial deixis: Deictic words help the hearer to identify the referent of a referring
expression through its spatial/ temporal relationship with the situation of utterance
Words that have deictic ingredient:
- Personal pronoun I, you,
- Time expressions yesterday, today, here, there,
- Verbs of movement go, come, get, take, bring, fetch, this, that
E.g. If a television new reporter, speaking in Fresno, California, says, “This town was shaken
by a major tremor at 5 a.m. today, the audience may understand that the referring expression
this town refers to Fresno, California in the context of the TV announcement, i.e. at the
moment of the TV announcer’s utterance.
However, when Billy the Kid said to the Sheriff in the saloon of Dodge City: “This
town is too small for both of us” the readers who read “Billy the Kid” may understand that the
referring expression “This town” refers to Dodge City in the context of the utterance.
In general, in the inclusion of the demonstrative word this, the identity of the referring
expression is given with the clue that a referring expression modified by this refers to an
entity (place, person, thing etc.) at or near the actual place of the utterance in which it is
used. Practice:
Practice 4.4
Are the following words deictic?
1) here 4) today
2) Wednesday 5) you
3) place
(Hurford, 1983, p. 64 )
Some verbs like come, go, bring, take, get and fetch have a deictic ingredients,
because they contain the notion “towards the speaker” or “away from the speaker”.
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Practice 4.5
Look at the following utterances and decide whether the speaker gives any indication of his
locations (Yes) and if so, where he is (or isn’t):
1) “Go to the hospital”
Yes/No …………………………………………………………………………………
2) “The astronauts are going back to the earth”.
Yes/No …………………………………………………………………………………
3) “Please don’t bring food into the bathroom”.
Yes/No …………………………………………………………………………………
4) “Can you take this plate into the kitchen for me?”
Yes/No …………………………………………………………………………………
(Hurford, 1983, p. 64 )
II. Psychological shifting of the speaker’s viewpoint with come:
Psychological shifting of the speaker’s viewpoint can be used for purpose of
interpreting one of the deictic terms: the speaker anticipating his future location, e.g. If I say
to you: “Come over there, please” while pointing to a far corner of the room, you could
reasonably infer that I intend to move to that corner of the room as well, i.e. I will be there in
a point of future time.
Or if I say to you, over the telephone, “I’ll come and see you sometime” I probably
have in mind a movement to the place where you are”.
Grammatical devices to indicate past, present, and future time which are defined by
reference to the time of utterance.
In reported speech, deictic terms occurring in the original utterance may be translated
into other possibly non-deictic terms in order to preserve the original reference.
36
UNIT 5
ARGUMENTS VS PREDICATOR: 2 BASIC SEMANTIC ELEMENTS OF A
DECLARATIVE SENTENCE
We have already mentioned proposition - the abstract semantic entity, sentence – the
linguistic entity/unit and utterance – the action of communication or the realizations of the
sentence in different contexts of communication. In this section, we present two basic
semantic elements of a declarative sentence: the argument and the predicator.
A. TWO MEANING BEARING ELEMENTS OF A DECLARATIVE SENTENCE
As mentioned in Unit 2, a proposition is the basic meaning which a sentence

expresses. A proposition consists of
(a) something which is named or talked about (known as argument, or entity or referent);
(b) an assertion or predication which is made about the argument.
How can these elements realized linguistically? If each of these elements is encoded
by linguistic units in a declarative sentence, they are typically recognized with words or
phrases with distinctive syntactic functions such as subject and predicate. Linguistically, the
argument or something which is named or talked about can be realized with referring
expressions. For example, in the sentence Fred is writing a letter, the argument
(something/someone which is being talked about) is Fred and a letter (referring expressions).
To identify the linguistic expression that encodes the assertion about Fred’s action mentioned
in the sentence, it is necessary to cross out the referring expression(s) (Fred and a letter) so
that we would have the remainder which is realized here as is writing.
Fred is writing a letter.
Referring expression: Fred & a letter
Remainder: is writing
However, in everyday speech, very often we can hear utterances without such
grammatical units as tense markers (to be and – ing present progressive). Semantically, these
linguistic units are said to bear only grammatical functions or meanings and accordingly
contribute little to the meaning of the remainder and the whole sentence.
To identify the core meaning or the most essential meaning of the remainder or the
whole sentence we have to continue to cross out the linguistic units that bear only
grammatical meaning. Thus, the core and essential meaning of the remainder of the sentence
in question should be write.
Remainder: The linguistic unit that expresses the most specific meaning:
is writing write
37
Practice 5.1
Examine the following sentences and (i) cross out the referring expressions; ii) circle the word
that expresses the core meaning of the remainder.
1) My dog bit the postman.
2) Mrs. Wraith is writing the Mayor’s speech.
3) Cairo is in Africa.
4) Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York.
5) This place stinks
6) John’s car is red.
7) Einstein was a genius.
(Hurford, 1983, p. 43)
B. PREDICATOR
I. Definition
The predicator of a simple declarative sentence is the word or phrase which does not
belong to the referring expression, and which of the remainder, makes the most specific
contribution to the meaning of the sentence. (Hurford, 1983, p.44)
E.g. asleep is the predicator in Mummy is asleep.
love is the predicator in The white man loved the Indian maiden.
wait for is the predicator in Jimmy is waiting for the downtown bus.
II. Two major semantic roles of a simple declarative sentence:
The semantic analysis of simple declarative sentences reveal two major semantic roles
played by different subparts of the sentence. These are the role of predicator, illustrated above
with different parts of speech, and the role(s) of argument(s), played by the referring
expression(s).
E.g. Sentence Predicator Argument
Juan is Argentinean. Argentinean Juan
Juan arrested Pablo. arrest Juan, Pablo
Juan took Pablo to Rio. take Juan, Pablo, Rio
Linguistic realization Referring expression Predicate Referring expression
Semantic function Argument Predicator Argument
E.g. Juan arrest Pablo
Figure 5.1 The semantic functions of a simple declarative sentence and their linguistic
realizations
38
Practice 5.2
In the following sentences, indicate the predicators and arguments as in the above examples:
Sentence Predicator Argument
1) Dennis is a menace.
2) Harnish showed Morag his sporran.
3) Donald is proud of his family.
4) The hospital is outside the city.
III. Predicate:
As we have mentioned, the predicator of a simple declarative sentence can be
linguistically realized by different parts of speech such as noun, verb, adjective, preposition.
Words or phrases of different parts of speech are known as predicate. Thus a predicate is any
word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of
a sentence.
E.g. hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle: predicates
and, or, but, not, a, the: not predicates
Practice 5.3
Are the following predicates?
1) dusty 4) you
2) drink 5) Fred
3) woman 6) about
IV. Degree of predicate:

The degree of a predicate is a number indicating the number of arguments it is
normally understood to have in simple sentences. (Hurford, 1983, p.47)
E.g. asleep as in Mummy is asleep is predicate of degree one (often called one-place
predicate) because one argument (Mummy) is required to make sense of the sentence.
love as in John loves Mary is predicate of degree two (two-place predicate) because 2
arguments (John and Mary) are required to make sense of the sentence.
V. Further discussion:
There is a relation between types of verbs in grammar and their degree as predicate in
semantics.
One-place predicate: Intransitive verb which requires no object, e.g.
39
The trees grow.
Two–place predicate: Mono transitive Verb which requires a subject and an object,
e.g. John is eating an ice cream.
Three-place predicate: Ditransitive verb requires a subject and 2 objects, e.g.
John sent Mary a letter.
We also have 2, 3-place predicates with adjectives, nouns, and prepositions, e.g.
Mary is afraid of John. (afraid is two-place predicate)
Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York.
The majority of adjectives and nouns are one-place predicates
Such prepositions as from, of in different, afraid are not predicates.
Inherently relational nouns are 2-place predicates, e.g. brother, father, neighbour
E.g. the sentence He is a brother doesn’t make sense and seems odd.
Predicates of different parts of speech can have nearly the same sense, e.g. fool(ish)
VI. Predicates vs Referring expressions:
Predicates and Referring expressions have different functions. The roles of
these two kinds of meaning bearing elements cannot be exchanged.
The referring expressions The predicate
correspond to actual things, person…in the functioning as to describe the specific
world relationship between the things, person…
referred to. It describes how the things and /or
people, participate in the particular situation
described
Practice 5.3
State the degree of each of the predicates used as the predicators in the following sentences:
1) Dennis is a menace.
2) Harnish showed Morag his sporran.
3) Donald is proud of his family.
4) The hospital is outside the city.
5) Juan arrested Pablo.
6) Juan took Pablo to Rio.
40
UNIT 6
SENSE RELATIONS AND SENSE PROPERTIES
As we have mentioned earlier in Unit 1, linguists pay their contribution to semantics by

studying the senses of linguistic expressions (known as linguistic sense). Lexical semantics,
the subpart of semantics deals with the study of the relations between words and phrases
whereas the other subpart of semantics – sentential semantics studies the sense properties of
individual sentences and sense relations between individual sentences.
SENSE RELATIONS BETWEEN TWO PREDICATES (WORDS)
As we all know, the sense of a word is defined as a place which a word or phrase (a
LEXEME) holds in the system of relationships with other words in the vocabulary of a
language. These relationships are known as synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy.
A. Synonymy:
I. Definition:
Synonymy is the semantic relationship between two predicates that have the same
sense. Synonyms are expressions that are identical or similar in meaning and that can be used
interchangeably in at least some contexts. For example, the verbs buy and purchase are
synonyms:
They bought an expensive books.
purchased
They differ stylistically in that purchase is formal. They also differ grammatically in that only
with buy can we insert an indirect object:
She bought me a birthday present.
The noun order and the more formal command are synonymous in the sense of directive, but
order is more inclusive. Only order(s) can be used in these contexts:
I will not take orders from anybody.
My orders [“orders given to me”] are to requisition this building.
Commandment is restricted to divine command. Now can only be replaced by nowadays when
it means “in these times”:
I can’t tell you now.
What will happen now?
They now knew that he was guilty.
The essential criterion of synonymy is that synonyms are words which differ in their
sound shape but have the same (or similar) meaning. Absolute synonyms (sometimes also
41
called "true" or "exact" synonyms) are quite rare. More often, one finds words which are
similar in their meaning, but differ in the way they are used in context. Thus, walls are "high",
but not "tall", and children may be "tall" but not "high".
Synonyms frequently have more or less identical denotations, but quite different
connotations. Some synonymous expressions are more appropriate in certain contexts than
others. E.g. conceal is more formal than hide in
He hid the money under the bed and
He concealed the money under the bed
Sometimes two predicates may be synonymous in certain sentences only.
For example, in the sentences:
I must buy more stamps at the post office.
I must get some more stamps at the post office.
buy and get are synonyms, as it would usually be thought that get in the second sentence
means buy and not steal.
Practice 6.1
In the same following sentences, do the capitalized pairs of words have the same sense?
1) The thief tried to conceal/ hide the evidence.
2) I’m going to purchase/ buy a new coat.
3) These tomatoes are large/ ripe.
4) This is a very loose/ short definition.
5) You have my profound/ deep sympathy.
6) It is a very wide/ broad street.
Clearly the notions of synonymy and sense are interdependent. You can’t understand
one without understand the other. These concepts are best communicated by a range of
examples. In general, when dealing with sense relations, we shall stick to clear cases. (we
admit the existence of may genuinely unclear, borderline cases.) In considering the sense of
word, we abstract way from any stylistic, social, or dialectal associations, the word may have.
We concentrate on what has been called the cognitive or conceptual meaning of word.
Accordingly, we would say that kids and children have the same sense in ‘How many
kids have you got?’ and ‘How many children have you got?’, although clearly they differ in
style, or formality.
III. Classification:
a. Semantic synonyms:
42
These are synonyms that differ in shades of meaning. That is to say, they share the
core meaning or common sense of the group but differ in a certain sense that helps distinguish
one from another in the group.
E.g. Below are words describing a beautiful woman
beautiful extremely good-looking, much more so than mist women
good-looking pleasant to look at
pretty good-looking in an ordinary way but not really beautiful or sexually exciting
attractive good-looking, especially in a way that makes feel sexually interested
striking very attractive because you have a particular feature, such as hair or eyes,
that is beautiful and unusual
handsome good-looking, with the strong regular features that good-looking men are
usually supposed to have
lovely very good-looking, with an attractive and pleasant character
gorgeous (informal) very good-looking, especially in a way that is sexually attractive
stunning extremely good-looking and sexually attractive, so that everyone notices and
admires you
ravishing (humorous description) very good-looking and sexually attractive
elegant well-dressed, and graceful
b. Stylistic synonyms:
These are synonyms that differ in stylistic aspects.
E.g. - to die - to pass away
- girlfriend - bird
c. Phraseological synonyms:
These are synonyms that differ in their collocations.
E.g. - to say + [content]
- to speak + [a language]
- to do + [activity or task]
- to make + [produce something]
d. Territorial/dialectal synonyms:
Synonyms that belong to and used in different countries
E.g. - autumn (BrE) - fall (AmE) - autumn (Aus)
43
Practice 6.2
In the following sentences, do the pairs of words in capitals have the same sense? (Do they
differ in their dialectal, stylistic, or social associations?) Circle S for ‘same’ or D for
‘different’.
2) He comes to see us every FALL/AUTHUMN.
2) Nothing is more precious to us than our FREDOM/LIBERTY.
3) The body was found in the BOOT/TRUNK of the car.
4) We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT.
5) John got a bullet wound in his HEAD/GUTS.
6) A BLOKE/CHAPE I know has pickled onions for breakfast.
Practice 6.3
The following pairs of words share at least one sense in common but do not share all their
sense. For each pair:
(a) give a sentence in which the two words could be used interchangeably without
altering the sense of the sentence (use of a slash notation / as we have done);
(b) give another sentence using one of the words where a different sense is involved.
As a guide the first one has been done for you.
1) deep/profound
a) You have my deep/profound sympathy.
b) This river is very deep (This river is very profound is unacceptable.)
2) ripe/mature
a) …………………………………………………………………………………………
b) …………………………………………………………………………………………
3) broad/wide
a) …………………………………………………………………………………………
b) …………………………………………………………………………………………
4) earth/soil
a) …………………………………………………………………………………………
b) …………………………………………………………………………………………
5) side/edge
a) …………………………………………………………………………………………
b) …………………………………………………………………………………………
44
Practice 6.4
Please rewrite the sentences below, replacing the italic words with a stylistic synonym.
(You can use a dictionary to look up for the synonym of the word in question)
E.g. I don't want to see your ugly mug around here again.
I don't want to see your ugly face around here again.
1. Have you got enough dough on you, or shall I pay by American Express?
2. Let's go down to the pub and see if we can pick up/pull a couple of birds.
3. She left home with a couple of bucks in her pocket and the shirt on her back.
4. Quick, run - there's a cop coming!
5. Paul's a really good bloke.
6. Nothing's perfect in life and it would be bloody boring if it was.
B. Antonymy
I. Definition:
Antonymy is a sense relation between two words or predicates that share a negative
relationship within the same field of meaning. These predicates or words are said to be the
opposite of each other in the same set or class.
E.g. in English we can easily find the opposite of each of the following words:
the opposite of cold is hot
the opposite of big is small
the opposite of tall is short
II. Morphological characteristic of antonyms:
Antonymous pairs that are morphologically related in that one term has a negative
prefix may be either binary or gradable antonyms. Examples of binary antonyms:
continue – discontinue
curable – incurable
legal – illegal
ripe – unripe
punctual – unpunctual
Examples of gradable antonyms:
approve disapprove
friendly unfriendly
happy unhappy
45
intelligent unintelligent
wise unwise
For this reason, antonyms formed from a base like this are called derivational
antonyms.
III. Kinds of antonyms:
a. Binary antonyms (Complementary antonyms/Contradictories)
Binary antonyms are predicates which come in pairs and between them exhaust all the
relevant possibilities. If the one predicate is applicable, then the other cannot be, and vice
versa.
E.g. true and false are binary anotnyms
If a sentence is true, it cannot be false. If it is false, it cannot be true.
Binary True False
Other examples are:

male – female
dead – alive
animate – inanimate
married – unmarried
stay – leave
inside – outside
These normally exclude intervening terms: one is either male or female, dead or alive.
Nevertheless, it is sometimes possible to squeeze in middle terms in exceptional
circumstances or with certain connotations:
male – hermaphrodite – female
dead – more dead than alive – half-dead – very much alive – alive
outside – half-in – inside
Practice 6.5
Are the following pairs of predicates binary antonyms?
1) chalk – cheese 4) dead – alive
2) same – different 5) married – unmarried
3) copper – tin 6) love – hate
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b. Converses (Relational antonyms):
If a predicate describes a relationship between two things (or people) and some other
predicate describes the same relationship when the tow things (or people) are mentioned in
the opposite order, then the tow predicates are converses of each others.
E.g. Parent and child are converses because X is the parent of Y (one order) describes the
same situation (relationship) as Y is the child of X (opposite order)
Converses X parent Y
X
X child Y
X
In other words, Converses are opposite where there are reciprocal relationships. A
typical example is the pair buy and sell:
Tom bought the car from Noma.
Noma sold the car to Tom.
Other examples of pairs of verbs that are converses:
give – receive
lend – borrow
The same verb may be used for both directions of the action:
Sylvia rented the apartment to Diane.
Diane rented the apartment from Sylvia.
I loaned the stereo to Robert.
Robert loaned the stereo from me.
Certain pairs of terms for kinship and social relationships may also constitute converses:
wife – husband
parent – child
grandparent – grandchild
doctor – patient
teacher – student
lawyer – client
If Sandra is Paul’s wife, the Paul is Sandra’s husband. Similarly, if Ronald is
Elizabeth’s teacher, then Elizabeth is Ronald’s student. The same term is sometimes available
for both directions. If Kelvin and Sheila are colleagues, then Kelvin is Sheila’s colleague and
Sheila is Kelvin’s colleague. Other converses that are identical are friend, partner, associate,
room-mate, cousin, sibling. So also for verbs and combinations with verbs: marry, be related
47
to, be associated with. Adjectives and verbs denoting similarity of difference may be identical
converses: resemble, differ, equal; similar to, identical with, different form, equal to. Some
terms for spatial and temporal relations are also converses:
in front of – behind
before – after
above – below
If I am in front of the screen, then the screen is behind me. If Milton lived after
Shakespeare, then Shakespeare lived before Milton. Terms that may be identical converses for
spatial relations include near, next to, opposite. 13
Practice 6.6
Are the following pairs of expressions converses?
1) below - above
2) grandparent – grandchild
3) love – hate
4) conceal – reveal
5) greater than – less than
6) own – belong
7) buy – sell
8) borrow – lend
9) give – take
10) come – go
In both types of antonyms discussed so far, binary antonymy and converseness, the
antonyms come in pairs. Between them, the members of a pair of binary antonyms fully fill
the area to which they can be applied. Such areas can be thought of miniature semantic
systems. Thus, for example, male and female between them constitute the English sex system,
true and false are the tow members of the truth system etc. Other such systems can have three,
or four, or any number of members.
When we are asked to give the opposite of a word or predicate such as cold or big, it is
easy for us to think of a member to be the opposite of the predicate mentioned. However, in
some cases it is not easy for us to find out the opposite of a predicate or word that belongs to a
system like meal system or substance system. The members of these systems are said to be
not exactly opposites. Rather, they are mutually incompatible.
48
c. Mutually incompatible antonyms:
Mutually incompatible antonyms are words/predicates that belong to a multiple
member system in which all members together cover all the relevant areas.
E.g. Spring and Summer belong to the season system. Besides Spring and Summer, there are
also other members such as Autumn and Winter to cover the relevant areas of seasons. These
members are NOT real opposites to each other in the set. It is difficult for us to point out the
opposite for Autumn because we may think of more than one member besides Autumn in the
season system.
Multiple Incompatible Season
Spring Summer Autumn Winter
For some linguists, some sets of terms with in the same semantic field are not
considered as antonyms, though they are incompatibles. They are incompatibles because the
use of one term excludes the other. If a dress is green it cannot be blue, though a dress can be
partly green and partly blue. Whereas black and white are considered genuine anonyms,
green and blue are not. Other examples of incompatibles are the terms for days of the week,
military ranks, numbers, rooms in a house (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, etc.), departments in
university or college (History, Mathematics, Physics, etc.).
For these linguists, words of this kind can be called taxonomic sisters which are on the
same level of categorization, and mutually exclude each other. Subordinate categories are like
this. "Boots", "pumps", "slippers" and "sandals", for example, are mutually exclusive, i.e. a
boot cannot be a sandal, a pump or a slipper. Taxonomic sisters are like binary antonyms in
that the relationship among the members is one of "either/or". They differ however, in that,
with binary antonyms, there are only two members in opposition.
Practice 6.7
1) What would you call the system to which solid and gas belong?
2) How many members does this system have?
3) Can you think of an example of a seven-member system?
4) Can you think of examples of four-members system?
There are also large numbers of open-ended systems of multiple incompatibility. The
number of the members in these systems is infinite. We cannot list all the members that
belong to this system. For example we cannot say how many colours there are in the colour
system. Neither can we do this with the names of plants in English nor the names of different
49
metals in English. Of the reasons is that new members are recruited into the system every day,
every year and thus the number of the members is increasing incessantly.
Practice 6.8
1) How many members can you name in these following systems?
2) Can you name as many members of the colour system as possible in English?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3) Can you name as many members of the animal system as possible in English?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
4) Can you name as many members of the flower system as possible in English?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
5) Can you name as many members of the metal system as possible in English?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
6) Can you name as many members of the furniture system as possible in English?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
d. Gradable antonyms:
Two predicates are gradable antonyms if they are at opposite ends of a continuous
scale of values (a scale which typically varies according to the context of use).
E.g. Cold and hot are antonyms in the semantic field of temperature: if something is cold, it is
not hot; if it is hot, it is not cold. The two terms are gradable on the temperature scale: my
food can be very cold or it can be cooler than yours. There are also other gradable terms on
the scale between cold and hot, so that if something is not cold it is not necessarily hot, and if
it is hot it is not necessarily cold. It can be of a value between the two values: hot and cold:
hot – warm – lukewarm – cool – tepid – cold
Where intermediate terms are possible, as with cold and hot, the antonyms are
gradable. Here are some other examples of gradable antonyms:
huge – large – medium – sized – small – tiny
wet – moist – dry
probable – possibly – unlikely
hate – dislike – like – love
Sometimes the set of antonyms may contain some words that are not gradable; for
example, the extremes in this set:
always – frequently – occasionally – rarely – never
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Practice 6.9
Are the following pairs gradable antonyms?
1) tall - short 4) top - bottom
2) long – short 5) love - hate
3) clever – stupid
Most of adjectives are gradable, that is to say, can be modified by adverbs which
convey the degree of intensity of the adjective. Gradability includes comparison:
E.g. tall – taller - tallest
beautiful - more beautiful - most beautiful
and other forms of intensification:
very young - so young - extremely young
Accordingly, a good test for gradability, i.e. having a value on some continuous scale,
as gradable antonyms do, is to see whether a word can combine with very, extremely, or very
much, or how? how much? For example, how tall is he? is acceptable but how top is he? is
generally not acceptable. However, pragmatically we usually make the How- question with
unmarked terms such as tall in the pair tall – short, with hot in the pair hot - cold … We
rarely ask question with marked terms such as short or cold. Such questions as How short are
you? or How near is it from your house to school? may sound odd.
Unmarked term in “How” questions and measure phrases
How is used as a pro-form for degree intensifiers of the adjective or adverb in
questions and exclamations:
How efficient is he? How efficiently does he work?
How beautiful is she? How beautifully she dances!
Measure adjectives that cover a scale of measurement and have a term for such of the
scale use the upper extreme as the “unmarked” term in How questions and with the
measurements:
E.g. A: How old is your son? B: He’s three months (old).
Adjectives that are used as the unmarked term in How questions and with
measurements are listed, with the marked term given in parenthesis:
deep (shallow) old (young) thick (thin)
high (low) tall (short) wide (narrow)
long (short)
Other adjectives are used as the unmarked term for premodification by interrogative
How (How heavy is it?) but are not used with measurements (*It is two pounds heavy). They
include:
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big (small) fat (thin) large (little)
bright (dim) heavy (light) strong (weak)
If we use the marked term, as in How young is John? we are asking a question that
presupposes that John is young, whereas the unmarked term in How old is John? does not
presupposes that John is old. Notice that neither term is neutral in exclamation:
How young he is! (he is extremely young)
How old he is! (He is extremely old)
All dynamic adjectives gradable. Most stative adjectives (tall, old) are gradable; some
are non-gradable, principally ‘technical adjectives’ like atomic (scientist) and hydrochloric
(acid) and adjectives denoting provenance, e.g. British
One more thing that we should mention here is that the negation of a gradable term is
preferred when we have to talk about something undesirable or when we have to give
unflattering remarks about the other person(s). For example, the term cheap may suggest
something with poor quality or shoddiness. For example, a sentence like He is not very clever
is more acceptable than a sentence like He is stupid.
Practice 6.10
Apply this test to the following words to decide whether they are gradable (G) or not (NG).
1) near 4) electrical
2) cheap 5) triangular
3) beautiful
Practice 6.11
Classify the following pairs as binary antonyms (B), multiple incompatibles (M), converses
(C) or gradable antonyms (G).
1) cat - dog
2) easy – difficult
3) good – bad
4) better than – worse than
5) deciduous – evergreen
6) pass – fail
7) urban – rural
C. Hyponymy
Hyponymy is the sense relation between two predicates (or sometimes longer phrases)
such that the meaning of one predicate (or phrase) is included in the meaning of the other.
(Hurford, 1983, p. 105). Briefly, this is a relationship of inclusion: a general term (a
superordinate or hypernym) covers terms that are more specific (its hyponyms).
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E.g. In English, the words animal and dog are related in such a way that dog refers to a type
of animal and animal is a general term that includes dog and other types of animal.
OR we can say that X & Y has the relationship of hyponymy if X is a kind of Y.
The specific term, dog, is called a hyponym, and the general term, animal, is called a
superordinate (also hypernym).
A superordinate term can have many hyponyms. E.g.
Superordinate: vehicle
Hyponyms: bus car lorry van
The word meat refers to a type of food: the superordinate term is food, and meat is its
hyponym. There is of course more than one type of food: meat, fish, fowl, fruit, vegetables are
co-hyponyms of food. Since each of these in turn has hyponyms, we have a hierarchy of
hyponymy for food. Fruit, for example, includes the co-hyponyms cherry and citrus fruit;
among the co-hyponyms of berry are strawberry, gooseberry, blackberry, raspberry, and
among the co-hyponyms of citrus fruit are orange, grapefruit, tangerine. ‘I bought some fruit’
entails ‘I bought some citrus fruit’, which in turns entails ‘I bought some fruit’, and that
entails ‘I bought some food’ and ultimately ‘I bought something’. The hyponymy hierarchy
allows us to be as specific or as general as we wish.
For some linguists, not all words have superordinates. For example, there is no term to
cover the adjectives happy and sad, though the nouns emotion or feeling might be considered
quasi-superordinates for these and other adjectives in the same semantic field. Similarly, there
are no superordinate for teacher/student, old/young, live/die. In kinship terms we lack a
superordinate in ordinary use for brother and sister, though the technical term sibling is
sometimes pressed into service for this purpose. Consequently, we normally have to ask “have
you any brothers or sisters?’, whereas we can ask “Have you any children?’ without
specifying whether they are sons or daughters. There may also be some variation in the use of
superordinates. Vegetable is ordinarily felt to be a superordinate of potato and tomato.
However, a restaurant menu may specify vegetables and potatoes as separate sets of items.
Tomato is technically a fruit, but we treat it as a vegetable. Similarly, nuts are technically
fruit, but in ordinary use we do not consider them as such.
In certain instances involving sexual distinctions, a term may be a superordinate and a
hyponym of itself. Dog, for example, may be used for both sexes of the animal (‘I have
recently bought a dog’) or just for the male dog (‘Is it a dog or a bitch?’). Similarly, man is
sometimes used – but less so than in the past, to avoid accusations of sexism – as a synonym
for the noun human: ‘man’s inhumanity to man’; ‘All men are born equal’.
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Practice 6.12
Look at the following and fill in some missing hyponyms.
1) pig virtue
sow ………. ………. honesty ………. ……….
2) tree emotion
beach ………. ………. fear ………. ……….
Further reading
What is the relation of hyponyms and superordinates to extension and intension? Give
examples.
extension of hyponyms (Doberman) are included in the extension of superordinates (dog) but
the intension of the superordinate is included in the intension of the hyponym . The set of dogs
includes the set of Dobermans. The properties that constitutes dog-ness are a subset of the
properties that constitute Doberman-ness
54
UNIT 7
STUDY OF TRUTH CONDITION
The study of truth conditions in semantics falls into 2 basic categories: the study of different
types of truth embodied in individual sentences (analytic, synthetic, & contradictory) and the
study of different types of truth relations that holds between sentences (entailment, paraphrase
& presupposition)
SENSE PROPERTIES & SENSE RELATIONS
To judge the truth condition of an individual sentence we should revisit the concept of sense
which plays the crucial role in defining the meaning of the word/phrase and accordingly the
meaning of a sentence. Up to now, the kind of meaning we are talking about here is obviously
the kind associated with words and sentences by the language systems, and not the speaker’s
meaning specifically associated with utterances made by speakers on particular occasions.
This kind of meaning is called sense.
A. SENSE
I. Definition
The sense of an expression is its indispensable hard core of meaning. (Hurford, 1983,
p.91)
It is indispensable in the sense that if it is absent from the group of sense properties of
a word or predicate, we cannot distinguish this predicate from another that has nearly the
same senses.
E.g. If the sense + adult is absent from the group of sense properties of the predicate man, it is
no longer man and we may define it as boy.
II. Further discussion:
1. This definition of sense deliberately ignores any influence of context or situation of
utterance on the senses of expressions.
E.g.
The sense properties of man contain the sense feature + adult irrespective of the
situation or context of utterance.
2. The sense of an expression can be thought of as the sum of its sense properties and
sense relations with other expressions.
E.g. bachelor bachelor = unmarried (sense relations)
+ human
+ male (group of sense properties)
+ adult
- married
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B. ANALYTICITY, CONTRADICTION & SYNTHETICITY – STUDY OF TRUTH CONDITIONS IN
INDIVIDUAL SENTENCES
Knowing the meaning of 2 sentences means knowing their truth condition. The truth
condition of a sentence can be judged depending on its sense properties: the property of being
analytic, of being synthetic and of being contradictory.
I. Definition
1. Analytic sentence:
An analytic sentence is one that is necessarily true, as a result of the senses of the
words in it. An analytic sentence, therefore, reflects a tacit agreement by speakers of the
language about the senses of the words in it. (Hurford, 1983, p.91)
E.g. Analytic: All elephants are animals.
The truth of the sentence follows from the senses of elephants and animal.
According to our analytic knowledge that we agree upon the senses of elephant and
animal, we know that the sense property + animal is included in the sense properties of
elephant. If the sentence X is an elephant is true, then the sentence X is animal is necessarily
true, following the truth embodied in the previous sentence. We already know that one
semantic property/category may imply others, e.g. human implies animate. Also, according to
redundancy rules, one feature automatically contains another and some semantic redundancy
rules reveal negative properties,
e.g. [ +human] [- abstract]
2. Synthetic sentence:
A synthetic sentence is one whose truth does not follow from the senses of the words
in it, but depends on the empirical truth about the fact in the world.
E.g. Synthetic: Michelle Platini is from Italy.
There is nothing from the senses in the words Michelle Platini or from or Italy to
ensure that this sentence is true. In fact, in view of the reader or hearer’s knowledge about the
world, for some people, it may true, but for some others it may be false.
For an analytic sentence, we can be sure that if X is elephant, X must necessarily be
animal whereas for a synthetic sentence, if X is Michelle Platini, X is not necessarily from
Italy. If we accept the truth of X is elephant then we must accept the truth of X is animal
whereas if we accept the truth of X is Michelle Platini, we need not accept the truth of X is
from Italy.
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3. Contradiction:
A contradiction is one that is necessarily false, as a result of the senses of the words in
it. A contradiction also reflects a tacit agreement by speakers of the language about the senses
of the words in it.
E.g. Contradiction: Cats are vegetable.
The falsity of the sentence follows from the senses of cats and vegetable.
If X are cats, X cannot be vegetable.
1. Analytic sentences are always true (necessarily so by virtue of the senses in them), whereas
synthetic sentences can be sometimes true, sometimes false, depending on the circumstances.
2. Analytic sentences can be formed from contradictions, and vice versa by the insertion or
removal as appropriate, of negative particle word or not.
E.g. Cats are reptiles. (contradictory)
Cats are [not] reptiles. (Analytic)
3. Synthetic sentences are potentially informative in real-world situation, whereas analytic
sentences and contradictions are not informative to any one who already knows the meaning
of the words in them.
E.g. Cats are [not] animals. (analytic/contradictory)
For those who have linguistic knowledge in English, if something is a cat, then it is
automatically animal. This semantic property is already encoded in the word cat. Whenever a
speaker uses the predicate cat, he has a tacit agreement that a cat is animal and it is not reptile
or vegetable. This semantic property is revealed by the negative redundancy rules.
Accordingly, such information as not reptile, not vegetable can be regarded as redundant to
the hearer or reader.
However, in everyday conversation, we usually hear such sentence as He’s not a man
or If it breaks, it breaks. The former is an instance of contradiction and the latter is an instance
of tautology, a sentence which is always analytic. For the former, instead of saying He’s
cruel, we can say He’s not a man. This contradictory sentence may express the idea of cruelty
more effectively than the use of the word cruel itself. Also, for the latter, such sentences
constructed with tautology as If it breaks, it breaks can express the speaker’s goal of
utterance. The uttering of this sentence may be interpreted as to make an explanation of
something taken for granted as a matter-of-fact. It also means the speaker views something as
too obvious to give further explanation. It may be also because the speaker views the other
speaker’s question as stupid and thus there is no need to give a detailed answer. For example
when a child continues to ask questions about something trivial her mother may give an
answer structured as a tautology like this exchange:
What are you eating mum?
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A hamburger.
What is a hamburger?
A hamburger is a hamburger.
4. Analytic sentences are referred to as Linguistic truths, i.e. true by virtue of the language
itself.
E.g. Cats are animals. (analytic)
We can judge its truth condition and know that this sentence is true basing on the
sense of the words cat and animal which are linguistic units.
5. Contradictory sentences are referred to as Linguistic falsities, i.e. by virtue of the language
itself.
E.g. Elephants are reptiles. (contradictory)
We can judge its truth condition and know that this sentence is false basing on the
sense of the words elephant and reptile which are linguistic units.
5. Synthetic sentences are some times true or sometimes false because they do not accurately
describe the state of affairs in the world. The truth or falsity of the sentence can be verified
only consulting the state of affairs that holds in the world.
E.g. John Lennon was assassinated by David Chapman. (synthetic)
This sentence may be true or may false according to the reader/hearer’s knowledge
about the world, not knowledge about the language or exactly, the senses of the words in the
sentence. Knowing about the sense of the words in the sentence is just a premise for us to
judge about the truth condition of the sentence against the fact of the world. For some people
who have knowledge about the world concerning the assassination of John Lennon, it is true
that David Chapman assassinated John Lennon. However, for some people who have not
heard or read about this assassination, they no way know whether it is true or false.
Practice 7.1
Label the sentences either T for true, F for false, or D for don’t know, as appropriate:
1) Cats are animals
2) Bachelors are unmarried.
3) Cats never live more than 20 years.
4) Bachelors cannot form lasting relationships.
5) Cats are not vegetables.
6) Bachelors are male.
7) Not cats like to bathe.
8) Bachelors are lonely.
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Practice 7.2
Circle A for analytic, or S for synthetic, as appropriate. For some, you will have to imagine
relevant situation.
1) John’s brother is nine years old.
2) John’s nine year-old brother is a boy.
3) San’s wife is married.
4) Sam’s wife is not German.
5) My watch is slow.
6) My watch is a device for telling the time.
Practice 7.3
Circle the following sentences A for analytic, S for synthetic, or C for contradiction as
appropriate. For some, you will have to imagine relevant situation.
1) That girl is her own mother’s mother.
2) The boy is his own father’s son.
3) Alice is Ken’s sister.
4) Some typewriters are dusty.
5) If it breaks, it breaks.
6) John killed Bill, who remained alive for many years later.
C. STUDY OF TRUTH CONDITIONS BETWEEN SENTENCES
I. Paraphrase:
A paraphrase of a sentence is a sentence that expresses the same proposition as
another sentence (assuming the same referents for any referring expressions involved).
(Hurford, 1983, p. 104)
E.g. Bachelors prefer red-haired girls is a paraphrase of Girls with red hair are preferred by
unmarried men.
Practice 7.4
Are the following pairs of sentences paraphrases? Why (not)?
1) John is the parent of James.
James is the child of John.
2) John is the parent of James.
James is the parent of John.
3) My father owns this car.
This car belongs to my father.
4) The fly was on the wall.
The wall was under the fly.
5) Some countries have no coastline.
Not all countries have coastline.
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II. Presuppositions:
Presupposition is a sense relation between two sentences or propositions in which a
proposition (expressed in a sentence) is assumed to be true in order to judge the truth or falsity
of another sentence.
E.g. John didn’t pass chemistry presupposes that John took chemistry.
Presupposition is what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message
already knows. If a speaker asserts that John didn’t pass chemistry, he necessarily assumes
that the hearer knows that John took chemistry. If there is no assumption that John took
chemistry then the sentence John didn’t pass chemistry has no value or it sounds odd, i.e. it
cannot be judged true or false.
 The test of truth value a sentence by presupposition:
The test for presupposition is as follows:
Sentence A presupposes sentence B if the falsity of sentence B renders A without a truth
value. If sentence A is true then sentence B is true.
SA The Duke of York is dead T NO TRUTH VALUE
-
PRESUPPOSE
-
SB There is a Duke of York T F
Figure 7.1. Representation of presupposition
(adapted from Parker, 1994)
One typical characteristic of presupposition is that it can pass the test of negation. If we
negate the proposition in the sentence, the presupposition of this sentence still holds. For
example, if we say:
The Duke of York is not dead
there is still a presupposition:
There is a Duke of York.
Accordingly a sentence like Mary’s cat is not intelligent still presupposes a sentence or
proposition: Mary has a cat.
Another characteristic of presupposition is that more than one presupposition can be
assumed for a sentence or proposition to be judged true or false.
E.g. The sentence: Open the door may have these propositions:
There is at least one door in this room.
The door I’m referring or talking about is actually closed.
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E.g.
Speaker A: What about inviting Simon tonight?
Speaker B: What a good idea; then he can give Monica a lift.
Here, the presuppositions are, amongst others, that speakers A and B know who
Simon and Monica are, that Simon has a vehicle, most probably a car, and that Monica has no
vehicle at the moment.
III. Entailment:
1. Definition:
Entailment is a sense relation between two sentences of propositions in which a
proposition (expressed in a sentence) that follows necessarily from another sentence.
E.g. John fried his fish entail John cooked his fish.
In the above sentences, the truth of proposition B (John cooked his fish) follows
necessarily from the truth of proposition A (John fried his fish). If we accept that A is true
then we can say B is also true.
2. Test for entailment:
If sentence A is true then sentence B is necessarily true.
If sentence B is false then sentence A is false.
S1 The Duke of York suffered a fatal heart attack T F
-
Entails
-
S2 The Duke of York is dead T F
Representation of entailment
(adapted from Parker, 1994)
3. Characteristics of entailment:
The relation of entailment is unidirectional or asymmetric.
In this case, only sentence or proposition A entails sentence/proposition B. If we
accept that Tom is an elephant then we also accept that Tom is mammal. However, if Tom is
mammal is true, it does not necessarily entails Tom is an elephant. The proposition Tom is an
elephant may be true or may false, because if Tom is mammal it can be something else other
than an elephant, for instance, it can be a cat or a pig.
We can say the entailment in the former case is correct whereas the entailment in the latter is
incorrect.
A B
Tom is an elephant Tom is mammal (correct)
Tom is an elephant Tom is mammal (incorrect)
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The prerequisite for this relation to hold is that sentence A contains a word that is a
hyponym of a word in sentence B. In the above examples, elephant (in A) is a hyponym of
mammal (in B). This can be illustrated as follows:
A B
Tom is an elephant Tom is mammal (correct)
[hyponym] [superordinate]
This is called Basic Rule of Sense Inclusion where it is applied to the entailment of A
and B above when the assertion of the truth of proposition A with a hyponym necessarily
entails the assertion of proposition B with its superordinate.
This rule can be stated about the relation between hyponymy and entailment:
Given two sentences A and B, identical in every way, except that A contains a word X where
B contains a different word Y, and X is a hyponym of Y, then sentence A entails sentence B.
Practice 7.5
Look at the following and circle the statements of entailments as correct or incorrect.
1) John cooked an egg entails John boiled an egg.
2) John boiled an egg entails John cooked an egg.
3) I saw a boy entails I saw a person.
4) John stole a car entails John took a car.
5) His speech disturbed me entails His speech deeply disturbed me.
Practice 7.6
Look at the followings and state the sense relation between those in A and B
A B
1) Henry is chewing a tulip. Henry is chewing a flower
2) Dennis got savaged by a sheep Dennis got savaged by an animal
3) Dennis stole a pound of beef Dennis took a pound of beef
4) Mary climbed through a square hole Mary climbed through a rectangular hole
However, the Basic Rules of Sense Inclusion does not work in all cases. There are
systematic exceptions when certain logical words such as not and all are involved.
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Practice 7.7
Negative sentences:
What is the relationship between the A sentences and the B sentences below:
A B
1) Henry is chewing a tulip. Henry is not chewing a flower
2) Dennis didn’t get savaged by a sheep Dennis didn’t get savaged by an animal
3) Dennis didn’t steal a pound of beef Dennis didn’t take a pound of beef
4) Mary didn’t climb through a square hole Mary didn’t climb through a rectangular
hole
State the rule of sense inclusion for the negative sentences above.
Practice 7.8
Look at the followings and state the sense relation between those in A and B
A B
1) Henry chewed all tulips. Henry chewed all flowers
2) All Dennis’s sheep have foot rot All Dennis’s animals have foot rot
3) Mary coloured all square shapes Mary coloured all rectangular shapes
4. Entailment with gradable predicates
More can be talked about the complicated relationships between hyponymy and
entailment with gradable predicates. These predicates are those that can be used to expression
a more or less degree of the property encoded by the predicate themselves, for example, very
big, very cold…. They are gradable in the sense that they can be used in comparative form,
for example, bigger, colder…
For example, the sentence A tall pigmy came in does not entail the sentence A tall
person came in, though a pigmy (a member of one of several groups of very small people who
live in central Africa) is a hyponymy of person. Because pigmies average about 1.5 metres in
height, accordingly a typical pigmy is judged tall in the group or set of his/her members of the
average height about 1.5 metres. He/she would not be judged tall in the set of normal people
in Asian countries, not to mention those typical men in European countries. Thus, there is no
entailment relations between A tall pigmy came in and A tall person came in. Though a pigmy
is a person, a tall pigmy is not a tall person. The presence of gradable words upsets the normal
relationship between hyponymy and entailment.
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Practice 7.9
What are the entailment relations between the following sentences?
A B
1) John saw a big mouse John saw a big animal
2) We went in a small bus We went in a small vehicle
3) That was an expensive sandwich That was an expensive meal
In the previous sections, we have already mentioned types of sense relations between
predicates such synonymy, hyponymy and antonymy. We can see that there is a relationship
between synonymy and paraphrase, between hyponymy and entailment. Basing on the types
of antonymy we can talk about one type of sense relation between two sentences, namely
contradictory.
IV. Contradictory:
A proposition is a contradictory of another proposition if it is impossible for them both
to be true at the same time and of the same circumstances. Alternatively (and equivalently) a
sentence contradicts another sentence if it entails the negation of the other sentence.
E.g. This beetle is alive is a contradictory of This beetle is dead.
In the above sentences the former contains the predicate alive which is the binary antonym of
the predicate dead in the latter.
Practice 7.10
Say whether the following pairs are contradictories (i.e. contradict each other) or not. Assume
constancy of reference if all referring expressions.
1) John murder Bill.
Bill was murdered by John.
2) John murdered Bill.
John did not killed Bill.
3) Bill died.
James can’t swim.
4) Mary is Ann’s parent.
Mary is Ann’s child.
5) Room 404 is below this one.
Room 404 is above this one.
6) This door handle is brass.
This door handle is plastic.
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Practice 7.11
Do the following pairs of examples conform to Statement A? Why (not)?
1) This cat is male.
This cat is female.
2) John hates Californians.
John loves Californians.
3) This mouse is dead.
This mouse is alive.
4) John owns three male cats.
John own three female cats.
5) Some people love Californians.
Some people hate Californians.
6) I found a dead mouse in the drawer.
I found a live mouse in the drawer.
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UNIT 8
AMBIGUITY
A. DEFINITION OF AMBIGUITY
A word or sentences is ambiguous when it has more than one sense. A sentence is
ambiguous if it two (or more) paraphrases which are not themselves paraphrases of each
other. (Hurford, 1983, p. 123)
E.g. the sentence We saw her duck has two paraphrases:
(1) We saw her lower her head.
(2) We saw the duck belonging to her.
But (1) and (2) are not paraphrases of each other.
Lexically, in (1) duck is interpreted as a verb that means ‘lower one’s head’ whereas in
(2) duck is treated as a noun which means ‘a kind of bird’
Syntactically, the sentence We saw her duck can be treated with 2 different clause
types:
(1) S V O C
We saw her duck
(2) S V O
We saw her duck
A word used in one sense belong to one part of speech, and used in another sense, it
belong to a different part of speech, e.g. long (V): yearn vs. long (A): not short
From these initial analyses, it is essential to view the ambiguity of a sentence under
two aspects: Lexical ambiguity and Syntactic/Structural ambiguity.
B. CASES OF AMBIGUITY
I. Lexical ambiguity:
This is a case where any ambiguity results from the ambiguity of a word.
In case of words and phrases, a word or phrase is ambiguous if it has two (or more)
synonyms that are not themselves synonymous of each other.
E.g. Trunk is synonymous with elephants’ proboscis and with chest, but these two are not
synonyms or each other, so trunk is ambiguous.
In the case of ambiguous words, a distinction is sometimes made between polysemy
and homonymy. This distinction has basically to do with the closeness, or relatedness of
senses of the ambiguous words. Lexical ambiguity arises when homonymous words exist
(rarely also polysemous)
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1. Homonymy:
This is a situation of an ambiguous word whose senses are far apart from each other
and not obviously related to each other in any way. Cases of homonymy seem very definitely
to be matters of mere accident or coincidence.
E.g. Mug (drinking vessel vs. gullible person) would be a clear case of homonymy.
Homonyms are distinct words that happen to have the same form. For example, the
noun bank represents two words: bank where money is deposited (derived from French
banque) and bank of a river (probably derived from Old Norse bank). In this instance the two
words are pronounced the same, spelled the same, and belong to the same word class. Other
examples of homonyms are duck (a swimming-bird) and duck (‘bend quickly’), ear (of a face)
and ear (of a cereal), peep (‘make a feeble shrill sound’) and peep (‘look cautiously’), bear (a
large mammal) and bear (‘carry’). The homonyms of both duck and bear belong to different
word classes, nouns and verb.
When two lexical items are pronounced the same but are spelled differently, they are
called homophones. Here are just a few examples:
altar, later one, won
brake, break peace, piece
cell, sell right, write
die, dye sail, sale
hair, hare sight, site
knew, new threw, through
meat, meet weak, week
Since pronunciations vary, what may be a homophone for one speaker may not be for
another. Those who use a rhotic accent (retaining /r/ before a consonant or in final position)
will pronounce father and farther differently, whereas for speakers with a non-rhotic accent
the two words are homophonous. In some dialects ate and eight are homophones; in other
dialects the vowels of the two words are distinguished as /E/ and /eI/ respectively. Stylistically
differences may also affect pronunciation: than and then may be pronounced identically in
casual speech, a possible cause for the misspelling of than as then.
Homographs are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Lead represents two
nouns: the lead /li:d/ attached to a dog and the metal lead /lEd/ ; the same written form is also
used as a verb: to lead /li:d/ the patrol. As a verb, row can mean ‘propel (a boat) with
oars’ /r@U/. The spelling system makes more distinctions than the sound system, so there are
fewer homographs than homonyms. Here are some further examples of homographs:
does: present singular of do /dVz/, plural of doe /d@Uz/
read: present tense /ri:d/, past tense /rEd/
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sewer: ‘conduit/ /su:@ (r)/ , ‘one who sews’ /s@U@ (r) /
sow: ‘scatter seed’ /s@U /, ‘female adult pig’ /s@U /
tear: ‘pull apart’ /tE(r)/, /’drop from eye’ /tI (r)/
Homomorphs are word with the same form that related in meaning but are distinct
grammatically/ Most frequently the pairs of words are related by means of conversion; for
example: the verb laugh and the noun laugh, the adjective calm and the verb calm. Other
examples of homomorphs are the adjectives fast (‘a fast car’ and the adverb fast (‘They drove
fast’); the adverb fast (‘They went fast’) and the preposition past (‘They went past our
house’); the adverb since (‘I haven’t seen them since’), the preposition since (‘I haven’t seen
them since last April’), and the conjuction since (‘I haven’t seen them since I was a child’).
Homomorphs may be different grammatically forms of the same word: put as present tense
and past tense. In some instances the relationship in meaning is unclear, although there is an
etymological connection, and therefore their status as homomorphs is in doubt; for example,
but as conjunction (“They do nothing but complain”), preposition (‘We’ve had nothing but
trouble from them’), and adverb (‘She is but a child’), where the meaning relationship of the
adverb to the other two is obscure.
2. Polysemy:
This is a situation of a word which has several very closely related senses.
E.g. Mouth (of a river vs. of an animal) is a case of polysemy. The two senses are clearly
related by the concepts of an opening form the interior of some solid mass to the outside, and
of a place of issue at the end of some long narrow channel.
All two meanings are related and have a common source. This is why they are listed
together in the same entry in dictionaries. They are part of the same lexeme.
The two meaning of bank relate quite obviously to two distinct words, which are
therefore undoubtedly homonyms. We expect he homonyms to be given separate entries in
dictionaries. But it is not always clear whether two words are distinct: some people, for
example, might see a relationship between the homonyms of ear (‘The ear of corn looks like
the ear of an animal’) and the homonyms of duck (‘The verb refers to an actions that ducks
habitually perform’).
In many instances the semantic relationship is clear. Hand (of a human) and hand (of a
clock) are polysemes rather than homonyms, and so are grasp (of a stick) and grasp (of an
idea). These two meanings of hands, as well as many others, appear under one entry in
dictionaries. Polysemy refers to multiple meanings of a word. We think of one meaning as
literal or basic and the others as extended meanings that are derived from the first. As a brief
inspection of a dictionary shows, words generally have more than one meaning and some
have very many meanings. The most frequent words tend to be the most polysemous.
Consider just a few of the meanings that can be distinguished for the verb have:
be in possession of: have a car
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be in relationship to: have a daughter
experience: have a headache
cause: have the television repaired
hold: have a party
give birth to: have a baby
Homonyms are coincidental in language, and might be considered a defect; they may
introduce ambiguity without any compensating advantage. Polysemes are essential in
language; they immensely reduce the number of words we need to learn and store in our
memory.
Homonymy and polysemy are common intentional components of ambiguity in
literature and, more generally, of wordplay in language.
Practice 8.1
The following are all polysemous words. For each one, two closely related senses are
indicated. Please say how these senses are related, i.e. what they have in common. The first
one has been done for the illustration.
1) chimney (pipe or funnel-like structure on a building for smoke to escape through vs.
narrow vertical space between rocks up which a climbers can wiggle by pressing
against the sides)
Both senses contain the concept of a narrow vertical shaft in some solid material (shape)
2) cup (drinking vessel vs. brassiere cup)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
3) guard (person who guards, sentinel vs. solid protective shield, e.g. around machinery)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
4) ceiling (top inner surface of a room vs. upper limit)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
5) Earth/earth (our planet vs. soil)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
6) drive (as in drive a nail vs. in drive a car)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Practice 8.2
Decide whether the following words are examples of homonymy (H) or polysemy (P).
1) bark (of a dog vs. of a tree)
2) fork (in a road vs. instrument for eating)
3) tail (of a coat vs. of an animal)
4) steer (to guide vs. young bull)
5) lip (of a jug vs. of a person)
6) punch (blow with a fist vs. kind of fruity alcoholic drink)
3. The relationships between ambiguous sentences and ambiguous words
Some sentences which contain ambiguous words are ambiguous while others are not,
and some sentences which contain no ambiguous words are ambiguous while others are not.
For example, the sentence A kind young man helped me to cross the road contain the
ambiguous words ‘kind’ and ‘cross’ but it is not ambiguous at all. This depends on how these
words are used properly in the structure of the sentence where they should be placed in order
to avoid ambiguity. It is essential that the part of speech of these words can be identified in
the proper position in the clause as adjective, verb or noun. The word ‘kind’ in A kind young
man helped me to cross the road can only interpreted as an adjective before a noun phrase
‘young man’ whereas the word ‘kind’ in the sentence A pike is a kind of fish can only be
understood as a noun after the determiner ‘a’. Similarly, the word ‘cross’ in A kind young
man helped me to cross the road can only be interpreted as a verb whereas the word ‘cross’ in
I’m very cross with you can only have the reading of an adjective.
Practice 8.3
Examine the sentences below and answer the following questions.
1) The cranes were transported by boat.
2) Semantics is branch of the study of language.
3) John sawed a rotten branch off the ash tree.
4) Cinderella watched the colorful ball.
5) I am going to the bank.
6) Semantics is a subdiscipline of Linguistics.
(i) Is each of these sentences ambiguous?
(ii) If Yes, which word(s) cause ambiguity?
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II. Structural ambiguity:
This is a situation where a sentence is ambiguous because its words relate to each
other in different ways, even though none of the individual words are ambiguous.
E.g. The chicken is ready to eat may mean different things in two occasions of utterance.
(1)  The chicken is ready to eat something.
or
(2)  The chicken is ready for us to eat/We are ready to eat the chicken.
Structurally, the surface structure of the two interpretations or utterances is the same.
However, if we a closer look into the deep structure of the sentence we can see that the role of
the word ‘The chicken’ in each utterance is quite different.
(1) The chicken functions as the agentive subject of the sentence
(2) The chicken functions as the affected object of the sentence.
Structural ambiguity is basically a question of ‘what goes with what’ in a sentence, and this
can be shown by diagrams of various sorts such diagramming techniques, constituency
diagrams (or tree diagrams where possible).
E.g. the phrase old man and women is structurally ambiguous. It is synonymous with women
and old men and old women. These two senses are represented with square brackets as
follows:
(1) [old men] and women
(2) old [men and women]
The first diagram indicates that old modifies only men, and the second indicates that
old modifies the whole phrase men and women. This is a case of quantifier scope ambiguity
where a modifier may have its influence with its scope over a single word immediately
following it or over the whole phrase following it. Ambiguity of this kind can also be
represented by tree diagram as follows:
NP NP
Adj NP
NP conj NP
Adj N N conj N
old men and women old men and women

More examples for the representation of ambiguous sentences with tree diagram:
The policeman killed the woman with a gun.
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(1) The policeman used a gun to kill the woman.
(the prepositional phrase ‘with a gun’ functions as the adverb to modify the verb ‘kill’)
(2) The policeman killed the woman who was holding a gun.
(the prepositional phrase ‘with a gun’ functions as the post-modifier to the noun phrase
‘the woman’)
(1)
(2)
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Practice 8.4
Examine the following sentences and
(i) Point out which word(s) or phrase(s) that causes ambiguity in each sentence.
(ii) Write down two sentences bringing out clearly the two meanings of each of the sentences.
(iii) State the function that the word or phrase in question may have in each of the two
sentences (e.g. whether it may function as a modifier to the noun phrase or the verb of the
sentence).
1) He greeted the girl with a warm smile.
2) I observed John in the garden.
3) Fred said that he would pay me on Thursday.
4) Visiting relatives can be boring.
5) We called him a porter.
Practice 8.5
Draw tree diagrams to illustrate the different meanings of the following ambiguous sentences:
1) I bought an old French dictionary.
2) The mother of the girl and the boy will arrive.
3) I am looking for someone to teach French.
4) Max was ogling a girl with brazen audacity.
5) The girl scratched the boy with the sharp fingernails.
6) They have wounded men there.
7) We need more intelligent leaders.
8) Mary took her parakeet to a small animal hospital
Apart from the two kinds of ambiguity mentioned above, there is a kind of ambiguity
known as referential ambiguity.
III. Referential ambiguity:
Of course speaker may intend one thing and hearer interpret it as another, but some
ambiguity of reference comes from the nature of the referring expression themselves and the
opportunity for competing interpretations inherent in them.
E.g. The sentence I wanted to buy a newspaper may have two interpretations of the referring
expression ‘a newspaper’:
(1) any newspaper (non-specific reference)
or
(2) a certain newspaper (specific)
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The interpretation of this referring expression can be facilitated by expanding the context of
the utterance
(1) I wanted to buy a newspaper but I couldn't find it
(2) I wanted to buy a newspaper but I couldn't find one
Further examples:
John told Bill that a visitor was waiting for him
Is him co-referential with John or Bill?
If you want to get ahead, you have to work hard
Does you have generic (= ‘one') or specific (=hearer/addressee) reference
I'm buying a drink for everybody here
does every have distributed reference one drink for each person)
or collective reference one drink total for everyone to share)?
John's picture may mean
(i) a picture of John
(ii) a picture that John drew
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UNIT 9
CHANGES IN MEANING
NEW AND OLD MEANINGS
Words may acquire new meanings. Usually the new meanings coexist with the old.
Hand is used for the end part of a human arm as well as for various derived meanings, such as
for the hour or second pointers on a clock or watch and for a set of playing-cards dealt to a
payer. We did not lose the animal reference of mouse when we acquired its reference to a
computer device. The verb cram could be used for forcing things unto a receptacle long
before it could be used for preparing for an examination by an intensive burst of study. The
British informal drinking toast cheers is now also synonymous with goodbye and thanks.
Squid is an American college slang synonym of nerd as well as denoting a sea creature.
Sometimes a new meaning eventually displaces an earlier meaning. Earlier meanings
of lewd – such as ‘untaught’, ‘foolish’, ‘ignorant’, ‘ill-manner’ – are obsolete. Meat no longer
refers to food in general, except as an archaism in older translations of the Bible or in
proverbs such as “One man’s meat is another man’s poison’. Earlier uses of silly – ‘fortunate’,
‘happy’, then ‘blessed’, holy’, then ‘pitiable’ – are no longer available to us. The uses of nice’
in expressions such as a nice distinction and a nice fit are now likely to be misunderstood by
most people. The homosexual meaning of gay has become predominant and its driving out
earlier uses.
There are two main approaches to the study of semantics change in the vocabulary.
We can examine the causes of change or the processes of change. We will look at each of
these in turn. 9
CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
A. External history
Words may acquire new meaning because of changes in society. In the feudal system a kind
of knight was a military servant of his lord; the feudal relationship no longer exists, but the
word remains with a new significance: the title knight is conferred on a man by the British
monarch in recognition of personal merit or services to the state. Although there is a
continuity in the development of the institutions, terms such as monarch, lord (‘peer of the
realm’), and Commons have changed in their significance as the functions and powers of
England for a certain type of private fee-paying school not under the control of the state pf the
local government can be explained by the changes in the management of these schools. When
it was felt that sex over-emphasized the biological differences between males and females
because the word was also used for ‘sexual intercourse’, the grammatical term gender
acquired the additional role of signifying a more neutral division. Class, still used in general
for any set or division, has been pressed into service for what is thought to be a major division
in society. With changes in kinship relationships, family has acquired the more restricted
sense of ‘nuclear family’ (as in ‘working to support the family’).
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Technological changes may affect meanings. Manuscript may be used of texts written
on the typewriters as well as by hand – in contrast to print – though typescript is also available
if the distinction is needed. A more radical change affected the noun manufacture, the
etymology (ultimately from Latin) specifies that the work was done by hand, and that was the
first use of the word in English, but when it became usual for the production of goods and
materials to be performed by machines, the common use of manufacture and manufactured
excluded work by hand. Car, once used to denote a carriage, art, or wagon, is used –
particularly in British English – for a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine (also
called motor car and particularly in American English automobile), when this type of vehicle
became the usual means of private transport.
Scientific developments may affect meanings. Atom was once thought of as the
ultimate indivisible particle of physical matter, but this conception changed when atoms were
split. Germ was used vaguely for something that causes a disease; it now more specifically
refers to a micro-organism. Language, at first restricted to human communication involving
words and grammar, has also been applied to the communication involving words and
grammar, has also been applied to the communication systems of various other creatures (for
example, dolphins and bees) as these have been shown to constitute complex systems.
B. Euphemism
The desire for euphemism motivates some acquisitions of new meanings. Euphemisms
are a way of avoiding direct reference to subjects that are taboo of impolite or simply felt to
be unpleasant in the community to which we belong, or they are a way of distinguishing
activities and attitudes that others might consider offensive.
Part of the body and bodily processes attract euphemisms, drawing on existing words
or expressions, some of them informal or slang. Here is a small selection from a vast
repertoire:
bottom, box, (family) jewels, knockers, tail
sleep with, score, swing
pass water, break wind, tinkle, the runs, be excused
toilet, lavatory, bathroom (American), geography of the house (British) period, (be)
expecting, (be in) labour
More delicate constitutions from an earlier period have left their mark in the
euphemistic substitutions of white (meat) for the breast of a chicken and dark (meat) for the
thigh.
Illness and death give rise to many euphemisms:
condition, social disease, stroke
(trouble with the) plumbing, waterworks, (give a) specimen
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pass away, loss, the departed, casket (American), funeral director, memorial park
(American)
People with a physical incapacity have been labeled with a series of euphemisms,
including handicapped and disabled. Current notable euphemisms are differently abled in
Britain and physically challenged in the USA.
War has brought a plethora of euphemisms, many of them avoid referring directly to
killing. Here are just a few examples:
armed reconnaissance friendly
carpet bombing neutralized
collateral damage pacify
cleanse surgical strike
Similarly, redeploy, retire, and withdraw conceal the ignominy of retreat. (Secret)
agent and operative are dignified terms for spies. The fighting in Yugoslavia that began in the
early 1930s has given rise to the euphemistic expression ethnic cleansing.
Taboos on certain swear words have resulted in phonetic disguised;12 for example:
shoot, shucks (shit)
darn (damn)
golly, gosh (Jesus)
crikey (Christ)
heck (hell)
Rhyming slang is another distinguishing device, the disguise being particularly
effective if the rhyming word is left out, as in these examples:
berk (Berkekey or Bershire hunt) (cunt)
cobbler (awls) (balls)
hit (and miss) (piss)
raspberry (tart) (fart)
Tom (tit) (shit)
C. Intensification
From time to time we feel the need to express our approval or disapproval in strong
terms. Words have been pressed into this service that depart form their earlier meanings,
sometimes – as in the case of awful – ousting previous uses. Below are some instances of
approving and disapproving adjectives accompanied by illustrative nouns. They are used
mainly in speech.
fabulous speech awful meal
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fantastic dress dreadful teacher
gorgeous day horrible weather
marvelous play revolting book
smashing story rotten party
terrific show
wonderful lesson
Successive generations seek out new terms. Among recent expressions of approval are
awesome, bad, brilliant (also brill), cool, radical (also rad), wicked.
Adverbs may also have acquired new meanings in becoming intensifiers:
awfully good highly intelligent
badly needed terribly nice
deeply worried terrifically patient
Whereas the adjective awful retains its disapproving meaning – as in awful mean – the
adverb awfully has flattened into a general intensifiers synonymous with extremely or perhaps
merely very.
D. Collocation
The tendency for words to collocate – co-occur frequently with other words – can
result in a particular word being used alone with the meaning of the pair of words. Private
derives from the collocation private soldier, Wellington from the collocation Wellington boot.
In appropriate contexts, the pill will be understood as referring to the contraceptive pill. To
propose to somebody is to propose marriage to that person. A woman who is expecting is
expecting a baby. Intercourse is generally understood to refer to sexual intercourse, a point
missed by the foreign student who wrote that he enjoyed coming to a summer school in
London because it gave him the opportunity to have intercourse with people form many
countries.
Below are some examples of recent words used with meaning of the collocation. The
omitted words of the full forms are given in parentheses:
cable (television) (shopping)
(wheel) clamp Patriot missile)
jet (-propelled aircraft) soap (opera)
landfill (site) (space) shuttle
laptop (computer)
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E. Technical and general use
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have witnessed an explosion of technical
terms, due to the enormous expansion in scientific and technological studies and in their
practical applications. Technical terms are expressions in use within a specialized field of
knowledge or activity. There is no clear dividing line between technical terms and terms in
general use, since technical terms may pass into the general vocabulary, and general words
and expressions may in addition acquire a technical meaning.
Some technical terms are restricted to usage within their field. We are not likely to
encounter in non-specialized contexts plant terms such as embryophyta and phaeophyta,
chemical terms such as titration and basicity, or linguistic terms such as hyponym and
denominal. Of course, many technical terms are in general educated use with roughly the
same meaning: deciduous, fungus, gene, neologism, prehensile, ruminant, tort. However,
when some technical terms have come into more general use they acquired a different
meaning among non-specialists. For example, in general use the psychological terms complex
denotes an obsession, while inferiority complex refers simply to a sense of inferiority; the
legal term alibi has been extended to mean an excuse of any kind; the mathematical term
parameter is commonly used for a measurable or quantifiable feature; spectrum, a term in
physics and optics, is in general use to mean a wide range.
When everyday expressions are adopted as technical terms, they are defined precisely
and may then become distinct from their mire general use. Examples are mass (physics), salt
(chemistry), complement (grammar), dedicated (computers), benign (medicine), frame (film).
(Source: Greenbaum (1980))
PROCESSES
A. GENERALIZATION AND SPECIALIZATION
I. Broadening of meaning/ Generalisation (semantic widening or Extension)

Generalization involves a shift in the meaning of word that makes it more inclusive.
This is a case for the meaning of a word to become more general, less specific. For example,
the legal term alibi has extended its use to nay kind of excuse, pilot is now used primarily for
the person who operates an aircraft in addition to its use for the person who takes charge of a
ship entering a harbour, and marathon refers to any activity involving difficulty and long
duration.
you guys: male only à male and female
manage: to handle a horse à to handle anything successfully (original meaning obsolete)
A word has been extended its own meaning
E.g. camp :temporary quarters of travelers, nomads à the place where troops
are logged in tents
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II. Semantic Narrowing of meaning (specialization)
Specialization results in a restriction of meaning. This is a case for a word, from a
wide range of meaning, now has a narrow one (the meaning of a word to be less general,
more specific).
E.g. Starve used to refer to dying by any means, science to all kinds of knowledge, cattle to
all livestock, Mutton has precluded the use of sheep to refer to the animals as food. In
American and Australian English corn is typically restricted to maize.
Further examples:
accident: any event, especially an unexpected one à an unintended injurious or
disastrous event (original meaning obsolete)
deer: any four-legged beast à members of the family Cervidae (original meaning
obsolete; replaced by the French word animal)
ledger: any book that lay permanently in the same place > an accounts book (original
meaning obsolete)
goal: aim or purpose à football goal (still polysemous)
Some specializations are motivated by the avoidance of synonymy, as in the case of deer,
pig, cow, sheep specialized after beef, pork, and mutton (from French).
E.g : hound: a dog of any breed à a dog used in the chase; queen: any wife (of any
men) à a king's wife
B. PEJORATION AND AMELIORATION
These two processed involve an evaluative shift, pejoration moving to a less

favourable connotation and amelioration to a move more favourable connotation.
I. Pejoration (degradation)
Pejoration is also understood as the degradation of meaning. This a process of
extending words to new meanings which convey negative attitudes. The meaning of a certain
word becomes worse, less nice, lower in status
E.g. "boor" : a villager , a peasant à a clumsy or ill - bred fellow
"knave" : boy à swindler, rogue
Negative attitudes towards certain groups can be reflected in semantic extensions
which are intentionally insulting.
E.g. addressing a grown man as boy to oppress (American South); this reflects negative
cultural attitudes towards blacks.
Or referring to women as bitches ‘female dog’
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Or referring to homosexuals as queers ‘peculiar’
Negative attitudes towards certain groups can also lead people who oppose those
negative attitudes to extend non-discriminatory words to refer to members of those groups.
they (pl) à (sg.) (a gender-neutral way of expressing ‘he or she’)
gay ‘happy’ à ‘homosexual’ (also metonymy)
Silly is an early instance of pejoration. In Old English s&lig meant ‘happy’, ‘bless’’;
by the Early Modern period it had deteriorated evaluatively to mean ‘deserving of pity’,
‘helpless’; ‘weak’, ‘insignificant’; ‘unlearnt’, ‘ignorant’. Cr&ftig had the favorable senses
‘skillful’, ‘ingenious’ in Old English, not the later pejorative connotation of crafty. Similarly,
cunning meant ‘learnt’, ‘clever’ in Middle English. Officious started off with the meanings
‘eager to please’ and ‘dutiful’, true to its Latin etymology, but soon acquired the modern
pejorative meaning. More recent times have seen the acquisition by propaganda and then
appeasement of pejorative connotations.
II. The so - called "elevation" of meaning
This is a semantic process by which the meaning of a word becomes "better, nicer, higher, in
status”.
E.g. minister: a servant, an attendant à head of a ministry.
Bad à powerful
Shrewd provides a contrast to crafty and cunning: it began pejoratively in Middle
English in the meaning ‘wicked’, ‘vicious’, then shifted to ‘cunning’ before acquiring its
present favorable connotation; shrew and shrewish remain pejorative. Other examples of
amelioration are fond, which once meant ‘foolish’, and more recently aggressive. The current
slang terms bad and wicked are striking instances of amelioration.
C. METAPHORIC EXTENSION
I. Definition of Metaphor:
This is a case of word or phrase which is used for special effect, and which does not
have its usual or literal meaning. This is the transference of names based on the association of
similarity. By the use of metaphor, something is described by stating another thing with which
it can be compared.
E.g. In Her words stabbed at his heart, the words did not actually stab, but their effect
is compared to the stabbing of a knife.
The metaphoric extension of a word is probably the most common process by which a
word acquires an additional meaning. When the new meaning has become established its
metaphorical relationship may no longer be noticed: the metaphor is a dead metaphor. The
similarity that gives rise to the new meaning is generally one of form or function.
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II. The cases of similarity:
- The formal similarity may be in shape:
bulb (of electric lamp) hand (of clock)
cake (of soap) leg (of table)
eye (of needle) mouse (for computer)
fork (of road) mouth (of river)
- It may be in spatial relationship:
bottom (of road) face (of building)
brow (of hill) foot (of bed)
coat (of paint) head (of table)
Or the metaphor may combine shape and spatial relationship:
arm (of chair) leg (of table)
cap (of bottle) vein (in marble)
- The transference of space relations on mental is sometimes a good source of
metaphors :
E.g. - to catch (to grasp) an idea.
- to throw light upon
- to get the hang of
- A remoter spatial relationship is conveyed by rainbow (‘an arch of contiguous
colours’) in rainbow coalition, and by shoot (‘discharge something’) in shoot oneself with a
drug, or shoot a question at somebody.
- The similarity may be functional:
bump (from job) menu (on computer screen – also similar in layout)
cannibalize (a vehicle) mule (drugs courier)
ceiling (for prices) (computer) program
(ethnic) cleansing root (of problem)
demolish (an argument) sow (dissent)
(brain) drain spoonfeed (students)
(acids) eat (be in) suspense
(DNA) fingerprint toy (boy)
grasp (an idea) (computer) virus
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- The similarity may be evaluative, as in these expressions when they are applied to
people:
angel honey
arse-hole mouse
baby pig
bitch prick
cat swine
cow witch
heel
- The similarity of position
E.g. The foot of a mountain; The leg of a table
- The similarity of movement
E.g. to worm
The similarity of colour
E.g. orange, rose
- The similarity of size
E.g. elephantine
- The similarity of behaviour or character
E.g. a fox, a snake
- Names of the part of human body, names of animals are a great source of metaphor
E.g. - The back of a book
- She is a fox
- Set expressions are based on names of animals as well
E.g. crocodile tears, lion share
- A number of proper names are used as metaphors
E.g. - He is a Don Juan
- She is a new Madonna
Or there may be combination of evaluation with some physical similarity, as in couch
potato and infect (with ideas).
III. Classification:
1. Living metaphor:
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This is the case where an expression is used with unusual metaphorical sense in the
creation and usage by an individual
E.g. ".......... she lent wings to his imagination ..."
(Jack London)
2. Faded metaphor:
This is the case of metaphor where an expression has lost its freshness due to long and
traditional use
E.g. - He is an Othello
- Her voice is sweet
3. Dead metaphor:
This is the case where a metaphoric expression is no longer felt as a metaphor due to
complete loss of direct meaning
+ Metaphor versus simile
- Metaphor: direct comparison and simile: indirect
D. METONYMIC EXTENSION
Another common process is metonymy. A word acquires a new meaning as an entity

or attribute that is substituted for something to which it is associated.
I. Definition of Metonymy:
This is the transference of name based on association of contiguity (expressing
something in terms of one of its attributes or something closely related to it).
E.g. - The kettle is boiling
- I want to have a word with you
II. The cases of metonymy:
Here are common kinds of metonymic relationships that have resulted in new meanings:
- Names of containers are used for the things contained
E.g. He drank twenty glasses
- Names of parts of the body are used as symbols
E.g. She has a good ear of music
- Names of materials are used instead of the things made
E.g. China (ware), Holland (linen) Morocco (leather)
- Proper names are used as common names
E.g. Champagne, burgundy, madeira
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- Part for whole:
A separate part is used instead of a whole thing and vice versa
E.g. I used to live without a roof over my head.
(new) blood (‘people’), (new) face (‘person’), (another) hand (‘person)
- Concrete for abstract:
Concrete things are used instead of abstract things
E.g. The White House, The Pentagon, Wall Street
bench (‘judiciary’), brain (‘intellect’), crown (‘monarchy’), seat (‘membership’), turf (‘horse-
racing’)
- Abstract for concrete:
Abstract things are used instead of concrete things
E.g. falsehood (‘lie’), performance (‘event’), terror (‘referring to a person’), trust
(‘organization’)
- Eponym (named after a person or place):
E.g. bikini, boycott, dunce, lynch, pasteurize, platonic, sadist, sandwich, sherry,
valentine
- Place for institution:
E.g. Downing Street (‘where the British Prime Minister works’), the City (‘British
financial institutions’), Paris (‘the French Government’), Washington (‘the American
administration’)
- Transferred epithet (transferred from a person):
E.g. curious (response), happy (occasion), hopeful (turn of events), miserable
(weather), red-eye (flight), sad (result), sick (building syndrome)
Another kind of metonymy appears in white-collar crimes, ie. crimes by white-collar
workers.
The various kinds of conversion involve some changes of meaning that are
metonymic. For example, to orphan means ‘to make somebody into an orphan’, a bore is
‘somebody or something that bores’. However, the change of proper noun to common noun
sometimes implies a comparison and is then metaphoric:
He is a veritable Hitler.
She is the Einstein of our time.
When shall we build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land?
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Practice 9.1
Examine the cases of metonymy in the following sentences and answer the questions:
(i) State the case of metonymic expression used.
(ii) Explain the use of the metonymic expression.
E.g. The company laid off 50% of its workers.
(i) INSTITUTION FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE
(ii) (company = leaders of the company)
1). Singapore is supposed to call this morning.
2) The University will not agree to that.
3) I was driving along and I hit a tree.
4) Nixon bombed Hanoi.
5) Chomsky is on the top shelf.
6) He owns a Picasso.
7) The suits upstairs don’t like the idea at all.
8) She’s not just another pretty face.
9) The conspiracy of which they were falsely accused did not exist, save in the fevered (= too
excited by imagination) brains of the secret police.
10) Blue collar workers are people who do physical or unskilled work in a factory rather than
office work.
Practice 9.2
Examine the following questions and answer the questions.
1) The ham sandwich at table four needs more coffee.
2) The house is on the left just past the fork in the road.
3) We need some good minds for this project.
4) The buses are on strike.
5) I will never invite him to dinner again. Yesterday he really made himself a pig.
6) By giving out printed sheets of facts and theories, the teachers spoon-fed us with what we
needed for the exam.
7) She has a seat on the board of directors.
8) He speaks as if he is a Socrates.
9) He owns a Picasso.
10) When the biscuits are cool you simply coat them in/with chocolate.
i) State whether the boldface word(s)/phrase(s) are used as metaphorical or metonymic sense.
ii) State the basis for association on which the metaphor or metonymy in each of the sentence
is used.
E.g. We need a hand here. (Metonymy)
(hand = person who can help)
The metonymy is based on the association of part for whole.
E.g. She’s a new Madonna. (Metaphor)
(Madonna: name of a famous singer is used to mean a lady whose behaviour and style are
alike = She is a sex symbol)
The metaphor is based on the similarity of character and style.
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Practice for revision
1. What semantic features or property differentiates the following sets of nouns? (Hints: start
by figuring out what the two subsets have in common)
a. niece, daughter, sister, vs. nun, woman, girl
b. mailman, nephew, priest, vs. gander, stag, bull
c. hen, ewe, cow vs. rooster, ram, bull
d. table, chair, pencil vs. love, thought, idea
e. table, chair, pencils vs. water, dirt, cream
2. What sense relation is illustrated by the following words: chair, sofa, and desk?
3. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property of properties are shared
by the words in i and those ii, and what semantic property or properties distinguished
between the classes of words in i and ii.
Example
i. widow, mother, sister, aunt , seamstress
ii. widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
The words in i and ii are “human”
The words in i are “female” and the words in ii are “male”
a. i. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
ii. bull, rooster, drake, ram
b. i. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
ii. milk, alcohol, rice, soup, mud
c. i. block, temple, mountain, road, tractor
ii. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
d. i. pine, elm, ash, weeping, willow, sycamore
ii. rose, dandelion, carnation, tulip, daisy
e. i. book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary
ii. typewriter, pencil ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk
f. i. walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim
ii. fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang, glide
g. i. ask, tell, say, talk, converse
ii. shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, yell
h. i. alive, asleep, dead, married, pregnant
ii. tall, smart, interesting, bad, tired
j. i. alleged, counterfeit, false, putative, accused
ii. red, large, cheerful, pretty, stupid
(Hint: Is an alleged murderer always a murderer?)
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4. Circle the letter of any of the following sentences that contain deictic expressions. (Hint:
Which ones require you to know the circumstances – participants, time, place, and so on –
of the utterance in order to be understood?)
a. Yesterday I saw you standing there.
b. Dogs are animals.
c. Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
d. Sir Robert Menzies was the longest serving Prime Minister of Australia.
e. She was born in taxi.
f. It was then that she pulled him towards her.
g. Both authors of this book were born in May.
h. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
i. Germany invaded Poland of September 1, 1939.
j. Once you’re inside, the treasure will be found on your right.
5. What reference relation holds between the italicized expressions in each of the following
sentences?
A: George won’t give himself an injection.
B: Maxine has been named secretary of the Student Government Association.
6. In the sentence John gave me all his money, me can be interpreted .............................
a. anaphorically d. both anaphorically and deictically
b. deictically only e. none of the above
c. coreferentially only
7. What reference relation holds between who and anyone in the following sentences: Anyone
who parks illegally will be towed.
8. What principle from the study of reference is illustrated y the following three sentences?
Your answer should explain why (A) and (B) are acceptable, while (C) is not.
A: Jack Parr used to be the host of the Tonight Show.
B: Johnny Carson used to be the host of the Tonight Show.
C: * Jack Parr used to be Johnny Carson.
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9. You look up the word aardvark in the dictionary and find a written definition
accompanied by a picture of an aardvark. In this case it could be argued that the
dictionary relies on ................
a. sense c. both sense and reference
b. reference d. none of the above
10. In discussing the nature of meaning, we noted that it is necessary to distinguish between
intension and the extension of each of these phrases.
i) Attempt to provide the semantic features associated with each of these words.
ii) How are the pairs dog – puppy and cat – kitten different from man – boy and woman
–
girl?
iii) Try to provide semantic features for the words circle, triangle, and quadrangle?
What problems do you encounter?
11. In the sentence John gave me all his money, his can be interpreted as ............................
a. anaphorically d. all of the above
b. deictically e. (a) and (b) only
c. coreferentially
12. Consider the following data

A: Come to me C. Come to him
B: Go to him D. Go to me
a. Which of these sentences is absolutely unacceptable?
b. Come and go both have a deictic component to their meaning. That is, they both depend
on the speaker’s point of reference. What is the deictic component of each?
c. Explain the deviance of the absolutely unacceptable sentence.
13. Consider the following data

A: Fred went to New York last night.
B: Fred came to New York last night.
C: Fred arrived in New York last night.
a. Which of these verbs does not have a deictic component?
b. Explain.
14. What truth relation holds between the following sentences? How can it be demonstrated?
A: Fred is mortal.
B: Fred is a man.
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15. What truth relation holds between the following sentences? How can it be demonstrated?
A: Fred’s wife is ten feet tall.
B: Fred is married.
16. What kind of truth is illustrated by each of the following sentences?
A: Qaldo’s living room has four right angles.
B: A square has four right angles.
17. Consider the following positions on the semantic relation between house and building
A; The semantic relation between house and building is hyponymy
B: The semantic relation between house and building is overlap
How do the semantic systems of those holding the two positions offer?
18. If floozle is a type of schtek then _____________

a. floozle is a hyponym of schtek.
b. floozle is a superordianate of schtek.
c. schteck is a hyponym of floozle.
d. schteck is a superordinate of floozle
e. both (a) and (d)
19. What sense property is illustrated by the word bar in George passed the bar?
20. Provide three hyponyms for the following word: walk
21. Provide three hyponyms for the following word: talk
22. Identify the superordinate (included term) for the following set: aunt, grandmother,
cousin, nephew
23. Rearrange the following set of terms from most general (the highest superordinate) to the
most specific (the lowest hyponym): animal, feline, lynnx, mammal, vertebrate
24. Rearrange the following set of terms from most general (the highest superordinate) to the
most specific (the lowest hyponym): rectangle, quadrilateral, polygon, parallelogram,
square
25. What sense relation holds among the following words: book, magazine, pamphlet?
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26. What sense relation holds among the following words: hate, despise?
27. Classify the following terms as binary antonyms (B), gradable antonyms (G), or converse
antonyms (C)
a. B G C wide/narrow
b. B G C smoking/ non-smoking
c. B G C near/ far
d. B G C defeat/ lose to
e. B G C innocent/ guilty
f. B G C wife/ husband
g. B G C in front of / behind
28. Classify the following terms as binary antonyms (B), gradable antonyms (G), or converse
antonyms (C)
a. B G C true/ false
b. B G C open/ closed
c. B G C debtor/ creditor
d. B G C deciduous/ evergreen
e. B G C teacher/ student
f. B G C cheap/ expensive
g. B G C man/ woman
29. The following sign was hanging on the front of a pub in Birmingham, England: Music of
the 60’s and 70’s every Tuesday night. The reader is unsure when to show up to hear the
music. The area of semantics that most likely accounts for the reader’s confusion
a. overlap d. presupposition
b. entailment e. none of the above
c. antonymy
34. Ostension deals with the linguistic defining linguistic expression by “pointing”. For
example, if a speaker says to someone who does not know English That is a TV while
pointing at a TV, then this constitutes a definition by ostension. Ostention is most closely
related to which of the following theoretical construct?
a. sense d. truth
b. stereotype e. prototype
c. presupposition f. none of the above
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30. The men John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan are related to the term President of the US
as follows:
a. Kennedy and Reagan are hyponyms of President of the US
b. Kennedy and Reagan are part of the extension of President of the US
c. Kennedy and Reagan are stereotypes of President of the US
d. Kenndy and Reagan are superordinates of President of the US
e. none of the above
31. The word robin and the word bird are related as follows:
a. robin is a prototype of bird d. robin and bird overlap
b. robin is a stereotype of bird e. none of the above
c. robin is a hyponym of bird
32. A man calls up an auto supply store on Florida Boulevard and asks if the store it located
east or west of Airline Highway. The clerk who answers the phone says It depends on
where you are. Using the relevant concept from semantics, explain why the clerk response
is nonsense.
33. A vet tells a cat owner to put medicine into the left ear of the cat. The owner appears
confused and asks the vet to show her which ear he means. What concept from semantics
accounts for the owner’s confusion? Explain.
34. In the sentence Mary shot herself in the toe, herself can be interpreted (either deictically or
anaphorically, cataphorically only, deictically only)
35. Write A by any of the following sentences that are analytic, and T by the ones that are
circumstantially true.
a. Queen are monarchs.
b. Queens are female.
c. Queen are mothers.
d. Dogs are four legs.
e. Dogs are animals.
f. Cats are felines.
g. Cats are stupid.
h. Donald Bradman is Donald Bradman.
i. Donald Bradman is our most famous cricketer.
j. Uncles are male.
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36. The opposite of analytic (see previous exercises) is contradictory. A sentence that is false
due to the meaning of its words alone is contradictory. Kings are female is an example.
Write a C by the contradictory sentences and an F by the sentences that are false due to
circumstance.
a. My aunt is a man.
b. Witches are wicked.
c. My brother is an only child.
d. The evening star isn’t the morning star.
e. The evening star isn’t the evening star.
f. Babies are adults.
g. Babies can lift one tone.
h. Puppies are human.
i. My bachelor friends are all married/
j. My bachelor friends are all lonely.
37. Consider the following pair of sentences

A: Ralph likes anchovy pizza.
B: Ralph has tasted anchovy pizza.
Which of the following truth relations holds between (A) and (B)?
a. (A) entails (B) d. (B) presupposes (A)
b. (B) entails (A) e. none of the above
c. (A) presupposes (B)
38. Consider the following interchange:

Fred: It’s the one on the right.
Ethel: My right or yours?
The area of semantics that accounts for Ethel’s conclusion is ...............................................
a. overlap d. deixis
b. entailment e. none of the above
c. synonymy
39. The sentence Siblings are not relatives is

a. analytic d. both (a) and (b)
b. contradictory e. none of the above
c. synthetic
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40. The sentences Wally gave Beaver a dog biscuit and Wally gave a dog biscuit to
Beaver ........
a. are paraphrases of each other d. are analytic
b. are contradictory e. both (a) and (c)
c. entails each other
41. For the following pair of sentences, state which truth relation holds between (A) and (B):
presupposition or entailment
A: I regret having my hair dyed green.
B: I had my hair dyed green.
42. Boys will be boys is an example of a(n) ...................................... sentence or linguistic

truth.
43. A widower is a man whose wife has died is an example of a(n) .................... sentence.
44. My mother is a widow is an example of a(n) ........................................... sentence or

empirical truth/ falsity.
45. Consider the following sentences

A: Fester has children.
B: Fester’s middle son is a dentist.
Which of the following best describes the relations between (A) and (B)?
a. (A) presupposes (B) d. (B) entails (A)
b. (A) entails (B) e. both (c) and (d)
c. (B) presupposes (A)
46. For the following set of sentences, state what truth relation holds between (A) and (B)
presupposition or entailment.
A: John knew that the window was open.
B: The door was open.
A: John passed the test.
B: John took the test.
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A: Biff likes Muffy’s new car.
B: Biff likes Muffy’s Mercedes Bent.
49. There are several kinds of antonymy. By writing a, c, g, or r beside each pair, indicate
whether the pairs in columns A and B are complementary, gradable, or relational opposite.
A B
good bad
expensive cheap
parent offspring
beautiful ugly
false true
lessor lessee
pass fail
hot cold
legal illegal
larger smaller
poor rich
fast slow
asleep awake
husband wife
rude polite
50. Identify each sentence as analytic (A), synthetic (S), or contradictory (C).
a. A S C This pentagon is six-sided.
b. A S C A horse is a horse.
c. A S C A triangle is three-sided figure.
d. A S C My cat is not a mammal.
e. A S C Young Juan’s pet is not a mammal.
f. A S C Young Juan’s snake is not a mammal.
51. The following sentence is from a letter received by a former student of ours: It is amazing
how easy it is to get by with no Japanese but it is really difficult. What concept from truth-
conditional semantics describes this sentence?
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52. What truth relation holds between the following set of sentences?
A: Fred got wet.
B: Fred took a shower.
53. Two relations involving word meanings are antonymy and synonyny. Which relations
illustrated in each of the pairs of words below?
a) flourish – thrive e) uncle - aunt
b) intelligent – stupid f) intelligent - smart
c) casual – informal g) flog - whip
d) young – old h) drunk – sober
54. It was noted in this chapter that a single form can have two or more meanings. Depending
on whether these meanings are related to each others, this phenomenon involves polysemy
or homonymy. Which of these two relations is exemplified by the forms below?
a) grass: herbage used for grazing animals; marijuana
b) leech: a bloodsucking worm; a hanger-on who seeks advantage
c) range: a cooking stove; a series of mountains
d) key: an instrument used to open a lock; an answer sheet for a test or assignment
e) reel: a spool for photographic film; round device at the butt end of a fishing rod for
the line
f) race: the act of running competitively; people belonging to the same genetic
grouping
g) /fla/: a blossom; finely ground wheat
55. These semantic relations among sentences were covered in this chapter paraphrase,
entailment, and contradiction. Which of these relations is exemplified in each of the
following pairs of sentences?
a) I saw Terry at the anniversary party.
It was Terry that I saw at the university party.
b) Jules is Mary’s husband.
Mary is married.
c) My pet cobra likes the taste of chocolate fudge.
My pet cobra finds chocolate fudge tasty.
d) Vera is an only child.
Olga is Vera’s sister.
e) It is fifty miles to the nearest service station.
The nearest service station is fifty miles away.
f) My cousin Bryan teaches at the community college for a living.
My cousin Bryan is a teacher.
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56. True/ False
a. Philosophers’ most important contributions to the study of semantics have been in the
area of sense.
b. Fat and skinny are binary antonyms.
c. The meaning relations illustrated by hen, cow, mare, and oxen is overlap
c. The phrase French literature teacher constitutes a case of lexical ambiguity.
e. The sentence Hon killed Bill presupposes the sentence Bill died.
f. The following sentence is analytic: If George killed the deer, then the deer died.
g. Two words overlap in meaning if they share the same specifications for at least one
semantic feature.
h. The pronoun in the following sentence is deictic: Sam is extremely pleased with himself.
i. The sentence Buckaroo Bonzsai loves his wife entails the sentence Buckaroo is married.
j. The pronouns in the following sentence are anaphoric: I like you a lot.
k. Smart and stupid are gradable antonyms.
l. The sense relation illustrated by rooster, bull, stallion, and buck is hyponymy.
57. Consider the following interchange between a father and son.

Son: Bob Feller pitched two no-hitters. True or false?
Father: True.
Son: False. He pitched three.
Actually, the son is wrong. If Bob Feller pitched three no-hitters, it is also true that he pitched
two no-hitters. What concept from semantics explains why this is so?
58. O’Barr (1981) describes a study similar to the following: an experimenter shows a film of
a car crash to two groups of students. The first group is asked Did you see a broken
headlight? Thirty percent say Yes. The second group is asked Did you see the broken
headlight? Seventy percent say yes. What area of truth conditional semantics can be used
to explain these different results? Explain.
59. Consider the following question: Have you stopped beating your wife? What truth relation
can be used to explain why this is “loaded” question? Explain (Hint: consider the meaning
of either a yes or no response)
60. Consider the following joke: One million people in this country aren’t working. But thank
God they’ve got jobs. What concepts from semantics can be used to explain the source of
humour in this joke? Explain.
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61. Explain the lexical ambiguity of the following sentences by providing two sentences that
paraphrase the two meanings. Example, She can’t bear children can mean either She can’t
give birth to children or She can’t tolerate children.
a. He waited by the bank.
b. Is he really that kind?
c. The proprietor of the fish shop was the sole owner.
d. The long drill was boring.
e. When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed.
g. It takes a good ruler to make a straight line/
62. The following sentences are ambiguous when written. After finding the ambiguity,
indicate which ones can be disambiguated in speech by special intonation or pauses.
a. The lamb is too hot to eat.
b. Old men and women will be served first.
c. Kissing girls is what Stephen likes best.
d. They are cooking apples.
e. Jill left directions for Jack to follow.
f. John loves Richard more than Martha.
63. The following sentences make certain presuppositions. What are they?
(The first one has been done for you)
a. The police ordered the teenagers to stop drinking.
Presupposition: The teenagers were drinking.
b. Please take me out to the football again.
c. Valerie regretted not receiving a new fur coat for Christmas.
d. That her pet turtle ran away made Emily very sad.
e. The administration forgot that the academic staff support the students. (Compare The
administration believes that the academic staff support the students, in which there is
no such presupposition).
f. It is strange that the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970.
g. Isn’t it strange that the United States invaded Cambodia in 1970?
h. David wants more popcorn.
i. Why don’t pigs have wings?
j. Who became Prime Minister in 1972?
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64. Circle the letter of any of the following sentences that contain deictic expressions. (Hint:
Which ones require you to know the circumstances – participants, time, place, and so on –
of the utterance in order to be understood?)
a. Yesterday I saw you standing there.
b. Dogs are animals.
c. Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
d. Sir Robert Menzies was the longest serving Prime Minister of Australia.
e. She was born in taxi.
f. It was then that she pulled him towards her.
g. Both authors of this book were born in May.
h. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
i. Germany invaded Poland of September 1, 1939.
j. Once you’re inside, the treasure will be found on your right.
65. The following sentences may be either lexically or structurally ambiguous, or both.
Provide paraphrases showing that you comprehend all the meanings.
Example
I saw him walking by the bank.
Meaning one: I saw him and he was walking by the river bank.
Meaning two: I saw him and was walking by the financial institution.
Meaning three: I was walking by the river bank when I saw him.
a. We laughed at the colourful ball.
b. He was knocked over by the punch.
c. The police were urged tp stop drinking by the fifth.
d. I said I would file it on Thursday.
e. I cannot recommend visiting professors too highly.
66. Examine the following sets of sentences, each of which include words or phrases used
metaphorically?
a) She gave him an icy stare.
He gave her the cold shoulder.
He exudes a lot of warmth towards a lot of people.
They got into a heated argument.
b) He drops a lot of hints.
The committee picked up on the issue/
She dumps all her problems on her friends.
Although the disagreed, he let it go.
c) the eye of a needle.
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the foot of the bed
the hands of the clock
the arm of the chair
the table legs
d) I’m looking forward to it.
She can foretell the future.
I can remember back to when I was two years old.
He drags up old conflicts.
You must plan ahead for retirement.
e) This lecture is easy to digest.
He just eats up the lecture’s words.
Chew on this thought for a while.
Listen to this juicy piece of gossip.
For each set of sentences
i) Identify the words or phrases that are used metaphorically in each sentence.
ii) Determine the basis for each of these metaphor sets.
use the pattern: “The metaphors in (x) describe _______________ in terms of
______________
Example: The metaphors in (a) describe human relationships in terms of temperature.
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A MID-TERM TEST ON ENGLISH SEMANTICS
Time allotted : 30’
Choose the correct answer by putting a tick on the space for one of the letters ABCD on your
answer sheet
1. Which of the following has the correct entailment?
a. Bill didn’t see a person entails Bill saw a boy.
b. Bill didn’t see a boy entails Bill didn’t see a person.
c. Bill didn’t see a boy entails Bill saw a person.
d. Bill didn’t see a person entails Bill didn’t see a boy.
2 . Which of the following involves a set of things?
a. sense
b. prototype
c. reference
d. extension
3. The men John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan are related to the term President of the US as follows
a. Kennedy and Reagan are hyponyms of President of the US
b. Kennedy and Reagan are part of the extension of President of the US
c. Kennedy and Reagan are stereotypes of President of the US
d. Kenndy and Reagan are superordinates of President of the US
4. Which of the following is the synthetic sentence?
a. Bachelors are innocent men.
b. Bachelors are not human being.
c. Bachelors are never married.
d. Bachelors are male.
5. Which of the following expressions of the sentence The present Prime Minister of Viet Nam is
Nguyen Tan Dung DOES NOT have constant reference?
a. Nguyen Tan Dung
b. Viet Nam
c. the present Prime Minister of Viet Nam
d. a and b
6. Which of the following is NOT independent of circumstance or particular occasions or topic of
conversation?
a. sense
b. variable reference
c. constant reference
d. extension
7. Which of the following can be in a particular regional accent?
a. sentence
b. utterance
c. proposition
d. a and c
8. Which of the following is the contradiction?
a. Bachelors are male.
b. Bachelors are not reptiles.
c. Bachelors are not human being.
d. Bachelors are lonely.
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9. Which of the following expressions is proposition?
a. My sick cat that is lying on the armchair over there
b. John Lennon who was assassinated in 1980 by a madman
c. A man is walking along the street.
d. A lovely cat (not understood as an elliptical sentence)
10. Which of the following expressions of the sentence Osama bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan is
the predicator?
a. Osama bin Laden
b. Afghanistan
c. hide
d. a and b
11. Which of the following utterances would be the most appropriate?
a. Please get me a cup of coffee.
b. Please take me a cup of coffee.
c. Please take him to me.
d. Please go to me with a cup of coffee.
12. Which of the following is NOT a generic sentence?
a. The bear never eats the dead body.
b. The bear is the animal that typically hibernates during winter.
c. The bear in that cage cannot swim.
d. The bear likes honey of the bee.
13. Which of the following describes the relation between (A) and (B)
(A) Fester stole 5 dollars.
(B) Fester took 5 dollars.
a. (A) and (B) are paraphrases.
b. (A) entails (B)
c. (A) and (B) same set of entailments
d. all of the above
14. Which of the following DOES NOT refer to the thing or person being talked about in the context
of the utterance?
a. variable reference
b. extension
c. reference
d. none of the above
15. Which of the following DOES NOT mentions a connection of language to the world?
a. extension
b. prototype
c. stereotype
d. all of the above
16. Which of the following has the abstract specification pertaining to a typical example?
a. extension
b. prototype
c. stereotype
d. all of the above
102
17. Which of the following is an example of the statement:
Some sentences which contain ambiguous words are ambiguous
a. Flying plane can be dangerous.
b. You’re so kind too me.
c. You’re that kind.
d. Visiting relatives can be boring.
18. Which of the following pairs are NOT gradable antonyms?
a. love - hate
b. hot - cold
c. ugly - beautiful
d. pass - fail
19. Which of the following is correct?
a. Analyticity is a sense property of predicates
b. Contradiction is a sense relation between predicates
c. Syntheticity is a sense property of a sentence.
d. Contradiction is a sense relation between sentences
20. Which of the following pairs illustrates symmetric entailment?
a. Mary broke all the dishes and Mary didn’t break all the plates.
b. Mary hid all the dishes and Mary concealed all the dishes.
c. Mary hid all the plates and Mary did not conceal all the dishes.
d. both a and c
21. Which of the following is an example of the statement:
Some sentences which contain ambiguous words can be ambiguous
a. It’s a colorful ball.
b. He gave her a gold ring yesterday.
c. He is really so kind to me.
d. I sawed a rotten branch of the ash tree in my garden.
22. The expression William Shakespeare in the sentence William Shakespeare is one of the greatest
playwrights in English Literature has the constant reference because
a. it occurs in an equative sentence
b. it can be used to refer to different potential referents
c. it never refers to different things or different person
d. it is not a referring expression
23. Which of the following cases has the universe of discourse as the real world?
a. Mother to child: If you don’t behave properly, the dragon will come, boy.
b. Mother to child: Barking dog seldom bites, son.
c. Mother to child: Santa Claus will bring you a lot of toys.
d. Mother to child: Don’t follow that barking dog because he is a witchdoctor.
24. Which of the following pairs of expressions binary?
a. same - different
b. give - take
c. conceal - reveal
d. beautiful - ugly
103
25. Which of the following is analytic?
a. The pentagon is six- sided
b. A horse is a not mammal.
c. My cat is not an animal
d. My snake is reptile
26. Which of the following pairs are NOT gradable antonyms?
a. love - hate
b. far - near
c. cat - dog
d. easy - difficult
27. Which of the following pairs are hyponym - superordinate?
a. daisy - sun flower
b. son - father
c. give - take
d. kill - cause to die
28. Which of the following has the relation between pairs of predicates necessarily symmetric?
a. entailment
b. paraphrase
c. synonymy
d. hyponymy
29. Which of the following most appropriately DOES NOT describe the reference?
a. Reference is the relationship between certain uttered expressions and certain things in a particular
context of the utterance.
b. Reference is the relationship between utterances and the world.
c. Reference is the relationship between certain uttered expressions and things in the world.
d. Reference is the relationship between the sense properties of a predicate
30. Which of the following expressions of the sentence My son moved to Danang in 1997 has the
variable reference?
a. My son
b. Danang
c. move
d. in
31. Which of the following is a correct statement about sense?
a. The sense of an expression is its relationship to semantically equivalent or semantically related
expressions in the same language.
b. If two expressions have the same reference, they always have the same sense.
c. All words in a language may have reference, but only some words may have sense.
d. The sense of an expression is a relationship between a particular object in the world and an
utterance.
32. Which of the following sentences indicating that the speaker is NOT in the hospital?
a. Please bring my son to the hospital for me.
b. Please come to the hospital with my son.
c. Please go to the hospital with me.
d. Please take me away from the hospital.
104
33. A feature of a noun phrase to indicate the only thing of its kind in the context of the utterance is
known as:
a. deixis
b. constant reference
c. definiteness
d. variable reference
34. Which of the following helps the hearer to identify the referent of a noun phrase as the only thing
of its kind in the context of the utterance?
a. Indefinite article a + NP
b. A certain + NP
c. Definite article the + NP
d. Bare NP
35. The sentence Fred said that he would pay me on Friday is
a. lexically ambiguous
b. structurally ambiguous
c. an analytic sentence
d. all of the above
36. The predicate put used in the sentence John put the pen on the table with a smile is
a. one-place predicate
b. two place-predicate
c. three-place predicate
37. Which of the following pairs has the same set of entailment?
a. John and Mary love each other.
Mary and Tom love each other
b. Visiting relatives can be boring.
It can be boring to visit relatives.
c. Bill killed Tom.
Tom died.
d. Tom loves Mary.
Mary loves Tom.
38. The pair far and near are gradable antonyms because
a. both of them can combine with very
b. both of them can combine with How (much)?
c. both of them can be used in comparison construction
d. all of the above mentioned
39. The predicates pass and fail are binary anonyms because
a. they describes the same relationship when mentioned in the opposite order
b. between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities
c. both pass and fail belong to the open-ended English achievement system
d. these two predicates are at opposite ends of a continuous scale of values
40. The word earth is an example of polysemy because
a. its two senses (of our planet and of soil) both contain the concept of land
b. earth (of our planet) and earth (of soil) are identical in pronunciation
c. earth (of our planet) and earth (of soil) are identical in spelling
105
References
A. Books
1. Crystal, David (1987) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University
Press.
2. Fromkin, Victoria & Robert Rodman, Peter Collins, David Blair (1990) An Introduction to
Language, Holt, Rineart & Winston.
3. Greenbaum, Sydney (1980) English Grammar. Oxford University Press.
4. Hurford, James R. & Brendan Hearsley (1983) Semantics- A coursebook,
Cambridge University Press.
5. O’Grady, William & Michael Dobrovolsky (1993) Contemporary Linguistics - An
introduction, St. Martin Press, New York
6. Parker, Frank & Kathryn Riley (1994) Linguistics for Non-Linguists A Primer with
Exercises. Allyn and Bacon.
7. Quirk, Randolph & Sidney Greenbaum (1973) A University of Grammar. Longman.
8. Richard (1985) Jack C & John Platt, Heidi Platt (1985) Dictionary of Language Teaching
& Applied Linguistics, New Edition 1992 Longman.
2. Electronic Texts
- Glossary of Linguistic Terms
- Applied Linguistic Dictionary Longman UK Limited 1992 2nd Edition
- LI 103 Introduction to Semantics Exam
- Glossary of Linguistic Terms 1999 SIL International
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisitcTerms
Greta Garbo: “If you are blessed, you are blessed, whether you are married or
single”.
106

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UNIT 1

Semantics (Greek, semantikos, “significant”), the study of the meaning of linguistic

I. Proposition vs. Thought:

A sentence expresses a complete thought (a proposition) which consists of a noun (to

S: a linguistic S [It’s raining]

The representation of the inter-relationship between

Utterances Sentences Propositions

(Source: Hurford, 1996 , p. 22)

Meaning is a notion in semantics classically defined as having two components:

Linguistic expression Reference Referent

Reference: The referent:

Figure 3.1 Illustration of overlap (adapted from Parker, 1994, p.42)

I. Denotative meaning (Denotation):

How does the extension and the intension of a word differ?

D. REFERENCE VS SENSE, EXTENSION AND DENOTATION

1. A proposition corresponds to a complete independent thought. As we have

Problems with the referential approach:

“the present Prime Minister of Britain” (uttered in 1945)

“the present Prime Minister of Britain” (uttered in 1980)

“the present Prime Minister of Britain” (uttered in 1980)

specific reference progressive aspect The tiger is sleeping in the cage

As mentioned in Unit 2, a proposition is the basic meaning which a sentence

IV. Degree of predicate:

As we have mentioned earlier in Unit 1, linguists pay their contribution to semantics by

Binary True False

Other examples are:

Spring Summer Autumn Winter

Hyponyms: bus car lorry van

3. The relationships between ambiguous sentences and ambiguous words

old men and women old men and women

A. GENERALIZATION AND SPECIALIZATION

I. Broadening of meaning/ Generalisation (semantic widening or Extension)

B. PEJORATION AND AMELIORATION

These two processed involve an evaluative shift, pejoration moving to a less

Another common process is metonymy. A word acquires a new meaning as an entity

12. Consider the following data

13. Consider the following data

18. If floozle is a type of schtek then _____________

20. Provide three hyponyms for the following word: walk

21. Provide three hyponyms for the following word: talk

37. Consider the following pair of sentences

38. Consider the following interchange:

39. The sentence Siblings are not relatives is

42. Boys will be boys is an example of a(n) ...................................... sentence or linguistic

44. My mother is a widow is an example of a(n) ........................................... sentence or

45. Consider the following sentences

57. Consider the following interchange between a father and son.

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