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Descriptive Grammar handout 12

16/17 May 2009

Semantics

dr Kinga Sądej

Sense relations

1. Identity and similarity of sense

a. Synonymy: ______________________________________________________________________________

Task 1: In the following sentences, do the pairs of words in bold have the same sense?

1. The thief tried to conceal / hide the evidence.
2. I’m going to buy / purchase a new coat.
3. These tomatoes are large / ripe.
4. This is a very loose / short definition.

5. It is a very wide / broad street.
6. How many kids / children have you got?
7. He comes to see us every fall / autumn.
8. We’ve just bought a new house / apartment.

b. Paraphrase: ________________________________________________________________________________

Task 2: Are the following pairs paraphrases of each other?

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 a coastline.

c. Hyponymy: _________________________________________________________________________

Task 3: Look at the following and fill in some missing hyponyms.

(1)

pig

(3)

emotion

sow ________ ________

fear _________ _________

(2) tree

(4)

virtue

beech ________ _________

honesty __________ __________

d. Entailment: _________________________________________________________________________

Task 4: Look at the following and circle the statements of entailment as correct (C) and incorect (I).

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

.

Task 5: Look at the following pairs of sentences and see if they are paraphrases of each other?

1. It is hard to lasso elephants.

2. We’ve just bought a dog.

Elephants are hard to lasso.

We’ve just bought something.

3. The house was concealed by the trees.

4. I ran to the house.

The house was hidden by the trees.

I went to the house.

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Meronymy: _________________________________________________________________________________

body

arm

leg

elbow ankle

Ex 1. In terms of concepts you have learned, what can you say about the relationships between the words in column A

and those in column B?

A

B

tulip

flower

sheep

animal

steal

take

square

rectangular

Ex 2. In terms of concepts you have learned, what can you say about the relationships between the A sentences and

the B sentences below?

A

B

Henry was chewing a tulip

Henry was chewing a flower.

Denis got savaged by a sheep.

Denis got savaged by an animal.

David stole a pound of beef.

David took a pound of beef.

Mary climbed through a square hole in the roof.

Mary climbed through a rectangular hole in the roof.

Ex 3. For each of the following pairs, say whether the relationship between the two lexemes is one of hyponymy. If it
is, identify the hyponym and the superordinate.

(a) dog - terrier

(c) north - south

(e) chess – game

(b) cottage – house

(d) run – sprint

(f) hot – warm

2. Oppositeness of meaning

Antonymy: _________________________________________________________________

a. Binary antonyms: ___________________________________________________________

Task 1: Are the following binary antonyms?

chalk – cheese

dead – alive

happy - sad

same – different

married – unmarried

long - short

copper – tin

love – hate

male - female

b. Directional opposites: reversives and converses

-

Reversives: up – down, forwards – backwards, top – bottom

-

Converses: below – above, precede – follow, lend – borrow, teacher - student

c. Gradable antonyms: _________________________________________________________

Task 2: Are the following gradable antonyms?

tall – short

top – bottom

beautiful - ugly

long – short

love – hate

pass - fail

clever – stupid

cat - dog good – bad

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d. Incompatibles: ______________________________________________________________ e.g. breakfast,
brunch, lunch, dinner, supper

e. Contradictory: ______________________________________________________________

Task 3: Do the following pairs contradict each other? (Which of these are contradictories?)

1. John murdered Bill.

Bill was murdered by John.

2. John murdered Bill.

John did not kill 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 doorhandle is brass.

This doorhandle is plastic.

3. Ambiguity of meaning

Task 1: The following sentences are ambigious. Rewrite the sentences, making necessary lexical and / or structural

changes, to avoid ambiguity.

1. The chicken is ready to eat.
2. Visiting relatives can be boring.
3. They passed the port at midnight.
4. The thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table.
5.We saw her duck.

Task 2: Each of the following words is ambigious. For each one, give two synonymous words or phrases that are not

themselves synonymous.

1. bust: _______________________ vs.

___________________________

2. plane: _______________________ vs.

___________________________

3. chair: _______________________

vs.

___________________________

4. pen:

_______________________ vs.

___________________________

5. sage:

_______________________ vs.

____________________________

Homonymy: _____________________________________________________________________________

Homophony: ____________________________________________________________________________

Homography: ___________________________________________________________________________

Polysemy: _______________________________________________________________________________


Task 3: 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)

Task 4: For each of the following words, give full sentences which include them and which bring out distinct senses
of the word:

1. rock

2. tin

3. fast

4. flat

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Puns

Q: Which story in the Bible involves tennis?
A: The one in which Moses served in Pharaoh’s court.

Q: What do Paddington and Winnie the Pooh pack for their vacations?
A: The /beə/ essentials.

Q: A botanist claimed to have discovered a nomadic tree in the African jungle…
A: …apparently it just packs its trunk and leaves.

I’ve no idea how worms reproduce but you often see them in /peəz/.

I hear this new cementary is very popular. People are just dying to get in.

Advert of a ferry: Prices that will make our competitors cross with us.

To some marriage is a word, to others, a sentence.

One day an English grammar teacher was looking ill.
A student asked, "What's the matter?"
"Tense," answered the teacher, describing how he felt.
The student paused, then continued, "What was the matter? What has been the matter? What might have been the matter... ?"

5. Metaphor

Task 1: Try to come up with examples from Polish for the metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR:

(1) ARGUMENT IS WAR: I demolished his arguments.
Your claims are indefensible.
I’ve never won / lost any argument with him
He shot down all of my arguments.

Task 2: Identify the types of metaphor in the following sentences, stating source and target domain.

(1) He did not see that it was a joke.
(2) They attacked my arguments.
(3) I’m really down today.
(4) They unearthed new evidence.
(5) She is of pure heart.
(6) Movie studios love a good fight, and a bad one too. But the Oscar battles have become trench warfare and dirty

tricks

.

(7) He has strong beliefs.
(8) Her blood ran cold.
(9) He is at a crossroads in his life.
(10) We’re fast approaching the end of term.

6. Metonymy

Task 3: Can you find examples of the following metonymies?

(1) object used for its user:
(2) place for people located at this place:
(3) part for whole:
(4) producer for product:
(5) author for work:
(6) institution for people responsible:
(7) place for event:
(8) place for insitutions:
(9) container for contents:
(10) place for product:

Nice wheels!