PRACTICE
1. Sentence meaning & Speaker meaning
2. Sentences; Utterances; Propositions
3. Reference & Sense; Referent; Referring expressions; Arguments &
Predicators; Predicate
4. Deixis; Definiteness
5. Equative & generic sentences
6. The universe of discourse
7. Extensions; Prototypes; Stereotypes
8. Sense properties (synthetic, analytic, contradiction)
9. Synonymy - Paraphrase
Hyponymy - Entailment
Antonymy (Binary / Converses/ Gradable/
Multiple incompatibility) - Contradictoriness
Homonymy; Polysemy; Ambiguity (Structural & Lexical)
10. Participant roles
- Agent
- Affected/Patient
- Instrument - Location
- Beneficiary - Experiencer
- Theme
Practice Test: T/F?
1. An utterance can be loud or quiet. T
2. A sentence can be true or false. T
3. An utterance is tied to a particular time and place. T
4. A sentence is tied to a particular time and place. F
5. A proposition can be said to be in a particular language. F
6. An utterance can be true or false. T
7. Our next client is Mrs. Green: is an equative sentence. T
8. The whale over there is a mammal is a generic sentence. F
9. Reference is a relationship between certain uttered expressions & things in the
world.T
10. Reference is a relationship between certain uttered expressions & certain things
outside the context of the utterance. F
11. All words in a language may be used to refer, but only some words
have sense. F 12. If two expressions have the same reference, they always
have the same sense.F 13. The context of an utterance is a part of the
universe of discourse. T
14. The sentence I hate bananas is more reflective of speaker
meaning. T 15. Which of the following is NOT a sense
property of a sentence?
A. Analyticity B. Syntheticity
C. Contradiction D. Polysemy
16. Which of the following is an example of hyponymy?
A. Flower & tulip B. animal & flower
C. Broad & wide D. young & old
17. What is the participant role of a screwdriver in Jane opened the tin with a
screwdriver? A. Theme B. Affected
C. Beneficiary D. Instrument
18. Which of the following is a two-place predicate?
A. sister B. genius
C. appear D. put
19. Which of the following predicates could be defined ostensively?
A. table B. sadness
C. war D. care
20. Meal & breakfast is a case of .......
A. polysemy B. homonymy
C. synonymy D. hyponymy
1. Accent and voice quality belong strictly to the ………………….
A. utterance B. Sentence C. Proposition D. argument
2. which is NOT true about sentences?
A. sentences can be true or false
B. sentences can be grammatical or not
C. sentences are in particular language
D. sentences are in particular regional accent.
3. which of the following could not be used as a referring expression?
A. appear B. my friend C. Celine Dion D. a book
4. which of the following is NOT an equative sentence?
A. Hanoi is a big city
B. My father is the person in the corner
C. Gone with the wind is my favorite film
D. George Washington was the first president of the USA
5. Which of the following is a two- place predicate?
A. give B.make C.genius D.smart
6. How many referring expressions are there in the sentence “Edinburgh is
between Aberdeen and New York.
A. None B. one C. two D. three
7. In which of the following utterances is the proposition asserted by
the speaker? A. 'Have you ever been to Paris?'
B. 'Open the window, please.'
C. 'Why didn't you go to the party?'
D. 'I've read this book twice."
8. which of the following does the definite article the signal
definiteness? A. The dog is a faithful animal.
B. The young like eating out at weekends.
C. The lady in the corner is my dearest aunt.
D. The average American family eats at McDonald's twice a week.
9. which of the following is dependent on particular occasions or
utterances? A.sense B.extension C. reference D. proposition
10. which of the following sentences is an analytic sentence?
A. AIl cats like fish. ??
B. My family has travelled around New Zealand.
C. the clock is a device for showing time.
D. Americans often watch TV after dinner.
11. which of the following is a contradiction?
A. All cat are vegetables.
B. Vehicle is a beautiful city
C. My friend’s daughter is studying abroad
D. All spinsters are unmarried.
12. Which of the following pairs of words are converses?
A. love/hate C. breakfast/ dinner
B. husband/wife D. true/ false
11. Which of the flowing is a contradiction?
A. All ca vegetables B. Verrice beautiful city
C. My friend's daughter D. All spinsters studying abroad married
12. Which of the following pairs of words are converses?
A. love/hate B. husband/wife
C. Breakfast/ dinner D. true/false
13. Which of the following pairs of the words are binary
antonym? A liquid/gas C. agree/disagree
B. happy/sad?? D. higher/lower
14. emotion- eagerness is a case of...
A. polysemy C. synonymy
B. homonymy D. hyponymy
15. The two sentences (1) Mrs. Green is Mary's mother and (2) Mrs. Green is
Mary's daughter said……………
A. to have the same proposition C. to be paraphrases of each other
B. to be contradictories D. to entail each other
II. Decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F). Blacken the corre
Tor F on the answer sheet.
1. Reference is a relationship between certain uttered expressions & certain things out
context of the utterance. F
2. Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has
reference.T
3. Referring is an act performed by particular speakers on particular
occasions. F
4. The same expression can be a referring expression or not, depending on
the contextT 5. Mary, an old lady, and in front of could be used as referring
expressions. F??
6. Tom is a genius is an equative sentence. F
7. In All bachelors are male, the predicate male functions as a
predicator.T
8. send is a one-place predicate. F
9. The stereotype of a predicate can be thought of as the most typical member of
the dicate. F??
10. Different prototypes result in cultural differences. T??
11. Syonymy is to paraphrase as hyponymy is to entailment. T
Ex2. Decide if the following sentences are true or false.
1. “Annie caught a tuna” entails “Annie caught a fish”. T
2. “Lia baked the cake” entails "Lia did something to the cake”.T
3. “Annie is not fat” entails “Annie is thin”. F
4. "It's a gorgeous piece of jewelry" entails "It's a gorgeous bracelet". F
5. “The thief was chased by someone" does not entails "The police
chased the thief". T
6. “Some kids running down the street" entails "Some boys running
down the street". F
7. “My sister-in-law grows roses” entails “My sister-in-law grows flowers”. T
TRUE/FALSE
1- Semantics is the study of meaning in language. T
2- A sentence is a grammatically string of words expressing a complete thought. T
3- An utterance is any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is
silence on the part of that person. T
4- The sentence Calligraphy means beautiful handwriting involves sentence
meaning. T
5- The expression The man in The man over there is my friend is a definite
expression. It is a referring expression. T
6- Speaker meaning is used in the sentence Hot means not cold. F
7- The context of an utterance is a part of the universe of discourse. T
8- The verbs come and go are deictic words. T
9- There is not a deictic word. F??
10- Today is not a deictic word. F
11- The first personal pronoun plural We is deictic. T
12- A deictic word is one which takes some elements of meaning from the context
of situation of the utterance in which it is said T??
13- A universe of discourse can be real, fictitious or partly fictitious. T
14- The sentence Whales are mammals is a generic sentence. T
15- The sentence That whale over there is a mammal is a generic sentence F
16- A generic sentence is a sentence in which some statements is made
about a whole unrestricted class of individuals, as opposed to any
particular individual.T
17- Two important meanings of the verb to mean are a-to go away and b-to
answer the questions.
18- Alive as She is still alive is a predicate of degree two (or two-place
predicate).F
19- In the sentence He loved her, the two arguments
are He and loved. F
20- In the sentence He loved her, love is a predicate of degree three. F
21- Conjunctions can be predicates. T
22-A predicate is any word which (in a given single sense) can function as the
argument of a sentence. F
23- In the sentence He wrote a book, WRITE is the argument and the two
predicators are He and book. F
24- The role of an argument is played by a predicate. F
25- The role of a predicator is played by a predicate. T??
26- The semantic analysis of simple declarative sentences reveals two major
semantic roles: predicator and argument. T
27- The sentence President Ho Chi Minh is Uncle Ho is an equative sentence. T
28- Sentence meaning (or word meaning) is what it counts as the equivalent of in the
language concerned. F??
29- The sentence John is good is an equative sentence. F
30- An equative sentence is one which is used to assert the identity of the
referents of two expressions, i.e. to assert that two expressions have the same
referent. T
31-The proper noun John in John is my best friend is never a referring
expression.F
32- Definite noun phrases are not used as referring expressions. F
33- The indefinite noun phrase a man can be used as a referring expression or not
depending on the context.. T
34- A referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to
something or someone, i.e. used with a particular referent in mind. T
35- The two sentences Harriet wrote the answer down and Harriet wrote
down have the same sense. T??
36- The sense of an expression is a relationship between a particular object in the
world and an expression used in an utterance to pick the object out.F??
37- The two expresions President Ho Chi Minh and Uncle Ho in Vietnam
context have the same referent. T
38- Vietnam is a word which has variable reference F
39- The word to mean can be applied to people who use language with the
meaning to intend to convey. T??
40- Vietnam is a word which has constant reference. T
41- The relationship between the expression My son and the person my son in the
sentence My son is here is called sense. F??
42- By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world (including
persons) are being talked about. T??
43- In talking of reference, we deal with the relationships inside the
language.F
44-A proposition can be tied to a particular time and place. F
45- A proposition can be used in a particular accent. F
46- A proposition can not be true or false. F
47- Corresponding declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences have
the same propositional content. T??
48-The two sentences John can go and Can John go? have different propositional
contents. F??
49- The two sentences Harry took out the garbage and Harry took the garbage
out have the same propositional content. T
50- The word to mean can not be applied to words and sentences with the
meaning to be equivalent to. ??
51- The two sentences George danced with Ethel and George didn't dance with
Ethel express the same proposition. F??
52- In uttering a simple declarative sentence, a speaker typically asserts a
proposition. T
53- A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative
sentence which describes some state of affairs. T
54- The two sentences Hellen rolled up the carpet and Hellen rolled the carpet
up are different sentences. F
55- The sequence of words We study English represents an utterance. F
56- What is written between two single quotation marks represents a sentence
and what is written in italics represents an utterance. F
57- A sentence can be loud or quiet. F
58- A sentence can be used in a particular language. T
59- An utterance can be loud or quiet. T
60- An utterance is not a physical event. F??
1- Semantics is the study of meaning in language. T
2- Sense is the relationship between language and the world. F
3- The extension of house is the house owned by a certain person. F
4- The extension of one-place predicate is the typical member of its
extension. 5- The sentence Visting professors can be interesting is
semantically ambiguous. 6- Reference is the sense relation in a
languguage.
7-T F The sentence They passed the port at midnight is grammatically ambiguous.
F??
8- A sentence is ambiguous if it has two (or) more paraphrases which are
themselves paraphrases of each other.
9- Polysemy occurs when two words have the same related meanings.
10- January, February, March belong to the system of multiple
incompatible.T
11- Hot-cold forms a pair of gradable antonyms. T
12- Woman-book is a pair of converses. F
13- Same-different is a pair of relational opposite antonyms.
14- True-false is a pair of binary antonyms. T
15- Hot-cold is a pair of converses. F
16- System of colours, system of seasons, system of directions, system of days of the
week are examples of multiple incompatibles. T
17- In He speaks English, the predicator is English. F
18- 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). T
19- If a predicate describes a relationship between two things (or people) and
some other predicate describes the same relationship when two things (or
people) are mentioned in the opposite order, then the two predicates are
converses of each other T
20- Binary antonyms are predicates which come in pairs and between them
exhaust all the relevant possibilities. T
21- Antonymy is the relationship of the oppositeness of meaning T
22- I saw a big mouse entails I saw a big animal. T
23- John saw a pound of beef entails John took a pound of beef. F
24- I saw a boy entails I saw a person. T
25- John boiled an egg entails John cooked an egg. T
26- A proposition X entails a proposition Y if the truth of Y follows necessarily
from the truth of X
27- If X is a hyponym of Y and if Y is a hyponym of X the X and Y are
synonymous. unit consisting
27- In terms of structure, a proposition can be defined as a semantic of a referring
expression and a thing referred to. F??
29- Animal is a hyponym of dog. F
30- Rose is a hyponym of emotion. F
31- Hyponymy is a sense relation between predicates such that the meaning of one
predicate is included in the meaning of the other. T
32- The two sentences John is the parent of James and James is the father
of John are paraphrases of each other. F
33- The two sentences The fly is on the wall and The wall was under the fly are
paraphrases of each other. F
34- A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a
paraphrase of that sentence. T
35- Ripe and mature are partially synonymous when they are used with the
word cheese.F
36- Kids and children are synonyms. T
37- Profound and deep are syn onyms when they are used with the
noun sympathy.T
38- Large and Ripe are synonyms when they are used with the word
tomatoes. F
39- A proposition is a relationship between a referring expression and a
thing referred to. F??
40- Synonymy is the relationship between two predicates that have the
same sense.T
41- The sense of an expression is its indispensable hard core of
meaning. T
42- A stereotype is related to prototype in that they refer to the relationship between
language and the world and they are the same in every aspect.
43- The stereotype of a predicate is the set of all the things. F??
44- That man is a woman has the sense property of being synthetic. F
45- That man is human has the sense property of analyticity. T
46- Alice is a student is a contradiction. F
47- A contradiction is a sentence that is necessarily false. T
48- My watch is a device for telling the time is a contradiction. F
49- No cats like to bath is an analytic sentence. F
50- Sentence meaning is what a speaker means when he uses a piece of
language a certain context. F
51- A synthetic sentence is a sentence that is always false. F
52- Bachelors are lonely is a contradiction. F
53- Cats are roses is an analytic sentence. F
54- An analytic sentence is the one that is necessarily false. F
55- A sky-scraper is the prototype for the predicate building in Vietnam. F
56- A double-decker bus is the prototype of bus in Vietnam. F
57- A prototype of a predicate is the complete set of all the things. F??
58- Extension depends on contexts. F
59- The referent of a referring expression is the thing picked out by the use of that
expression on a particular occasion of utterance. T
60- Extension does not connect language to the world. F
